On Wednesday (1 Mar), the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted to allow President Joe Biden to ban the Chinese-owned app TikTok. This would be the most far-reaching US restriction on any social media app.
Source: Yandex, for illustration purposes only
The bill does not specify how the ban will be carried out.
However, it still allows Biden to ban any transactions with TikTok. This means that anyone in the US may no longer be able to access or download the app on their phones.
According to Reuters, over 100 million Americans use TikTok.
Representative Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee who sponsored the bill, noted, “Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP (Communist Party of China) a backdoor to all their personal information.”
It’s a spy balloon into their phone.
However, Democrats opposed the bill, highlighting that it seemed rushed. They felt that it needed more discussions and debates with experts before the final decision was made.
South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the Democrats argued that Congress should not get in the way of a pending review of TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
CFIUS is currently determining whether Beijing can access TikTok users’ personal data. If they do, this is undermining national security interests.
The bill does not specify how the government will implement the ban. However, Biden has the power to ban any transaction on TikTok.
This week, the White House gave government agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from federal devices and systems. Furthermore, over 30 US states, Canada and European Union policy institutions have already banned downloading TikTok onto state-owned devices.
However, this latest measure still needs to be passed by the full House and US Senate. Only then can it go to Biden and become a law.
The Biden administration did not share their opinions towards the bill. It only mentioned that it had previously raised concerns about apps like TikTok.
Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said he strongly opposed the bill but understood concerns about TikTok.
However, he felt the bill would “damage [United States’] allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China’s sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise.”
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union called on lawmakers to oppose the bill, calling it “a serious violation of our First Amendment rights.”
A TikTok representative also noted,
A US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion people who use our service worldwide.
TikTok and CFIUS have negotiated for over two years on data security requirements. However, TikTok said it had already spent over US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) on data security efforts. It also rejects any spying allegations.
Their representative also mentioned that TikTok has “made substantial progress on implementing the proposed solution over the past year, and [TikTok looks] forward to completing that work to put all national security concerns about TikTok to rest.”
McCaul noted that he expects the House to vote on the bill this month.
Meanwhile, TikTok executive, Chew Shou Zi, agreed to testify to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on 23 Mar concerning the app’s relationship with the CCP.
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Featured image adapted from Yandex and Facebook.
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