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US House passes Rep.Krishnamoorthi’s bill seeking TikTok ban
Indian American lawmaker Pramila Jayapal vetoed the legislation to ban TikTok in the country.
House passes bill seeking ban on TikTok if ByteDance refuses to sell its stake in the company / Pixabay
The United States House of Representatives passed on March 13 a bipartisan bill that seeks a complete ban on the popular video sharing app TikTok in the US, if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not sell its stakes in the company.
The bill passed 352-65, with opposition from prominent Democrats and Republicans, including Indian American congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi co-introduced the bill named “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.” The bill gives China-based ByteDance 165 days to pull out of TikTok, after which app stores like Apple and Google Play would be prohibited from hosting TikTok or other ByteDance-controlled apps.
Speaking on the floor of the house ahead of the vote, Krishnamoorthi said, “This bill is not a ban and it is not about TikTok. It is about ByteDance…a 100 percent owner of TikTok. ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. In fact the editor-in-chief of ByteDance is the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party cell embedded at the very highest ranks of the company.”
Today, the House passed my bipartisan bill with @RepGallagher to force ByteDance's divestment from TikTok to end Chinese Communist Party control of the app. The CCP must not be able to use TikTok against Americans, and this bill would prevent that while keeping TikTok available. pic.twitter.com/SFs5uxouvp
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) March 13, 2024
He affirmed that the bill ensures that ByteDance divests itself of the vast majority of ownership at TikTok. “Our intention is for TikTok to continue to operate but not under the control of the CCP,” he asserted.
The Congressman also said the requirement for divestment is not new and the process was smooth when the US sought Grindr to be divested based on similar national security concerns. He went on to criticise ByteDance for sending a push notification to 170 million+ users in the country, including minors, to call congressional offices and protest the bill that seeks to ban it.
“And in doing so, these children called and they asked the question, ‘what is congress and what is a congressman? This influence campaign illustrates the need for this bill,” Krishnamoorthi maintained.
I voted no on this legislation.
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) March 13, 2024
While I have serious concerns about the Chinese government’s ability to access Americans’ data through TikTok, this legislation was rushed and lacks important consumer protections. I will work to ensure that any final bill addresses these issues. https://t.co/yL96ai6imr
Rep. Jayapal, the first Indian American woman to serve in the US House of Representatives, shared a statement explaining the reason for her vetoing the legislation.
Jayapal acknowledged serious national security implications of the Chinese government’s ability to access Americans’ data through the app but asserted that the “process of crafting this legislation was overly rushed and lacks important protections for consumers’ data.”
“The bill provides an unworkable path to remove TikTok from ownership by a Chinese company, making it a de facto ban. This would harm users who rely on TikTok for their livelihoods, many of whom are people of color. We do need to craft legislation that addresses the underlying issues with censorship by ByteDance, algorithm-targeted content at children, and security concerns while preserving constitutionally-protected expression and protecting American privacy, " the congresswoman said.
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