By Debra Rono
The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill to force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the app or get banned in the United States.
The vote set to be taken today will require TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular short-video app within six months or face a nationwide ban. The vote is scheduled for around 10 a.m. (17:00 EAT) and will require mandate support from two-thirds of House members for the bill to pass.
This comes just a week after the proposed bill had a single public hearing with minimal discussion. Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted 50-0 in favour of the bill, paving the way for a vote in the full House.
The new law poses a significant risk to the video-sharing platform, which has gained immense popularity globally, sparking concerns among governments and security authorities due to its Chinese ownership and possible ties to the Communist Party in Beijing.
The bill’s main supporters, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), believe the app presents a “grave threat to U.S. national security” due to its Chinese ownership, and they warn that TikTok could be used to influence U.S. public opinion or harness user data to spy on Americans. ByteDance is controlled by Chinese authorities, they contend, and they describe the app as “Communist Party malware.”
Ahead of the vote, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday Wang Wenbin condemned the proposed ban saying “In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,”
“Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” he said.
“This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” he added.
TikTok firmly denies any connections with the Chinese government and has reorganized the company to ensure that the data of its US users remains within the country, as stated by the company.
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, is currently in Washington, working hard to garner support to prevent the bill from passing.
Back in 2020, former President Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok and WeChat, both owned by Chinese companies. However, his efforts were blocked by the courts.
In a turn of events, Trump expressed that he is against the ban. He went ahead to caution that implementing a ban could result in a surge of support for Facebook, which he called “an enemy of the people.”
“Frankly a lot of people are on TikTok that love it. Young kids on TikTok would go crazy without it. A lot of users,” Trump said.
TikTok was initially launched into China’s App market in September 2016 by parent company ByteDance; it racked up 100 million users in a year. TikTok, the international version, had a release date in September 2017 following the acquisition of a video-sharing startup, Musical.ly. TikTok will have one billion users in 2021 and is expected to surpass 1.8 billion worldwide by the end of 2024.
TikTok has already been banned fully in countries like Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, and Somalia and has a partial ban in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European Union, France, Latvia, New Zealand Norway, Taiwan United Kingdom, and the United States.