Last week the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly,352 to 65, in favour of a bill that, if passed, would ban the Chinese short format video app, TikTok unless its American operation is sold to a non-Chinese company. The non-partisan bill was co-led in the house by a Republican, Mike Gallagher and a Democrat, Indian American Raja Krishnamoorthi.
It is not yet certain if the bill will be taken up and, if so, passed by the US Senate, but if it is, President Biden is expected to sign it into action.
American TikTok creators, many of whom became millionaires with their viral videos on the platform, are lobbying hard on behalf of the app. But as lawmakers agonise over the decision that would affect 150 million users in the US, key players in their domestic media are pointing them at India which banned TikTok entirely for all of its 200 million users in the country almost 4 years ago, along with 58 other Chinese-origin apps, a number that has since grown tenfold to over 500.
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