Information
The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that gives TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell the app’s US assets or face a ban, citing concerns about Chinese ownership posing a potential threat to US national security. The bill, titled the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” alleges that ByteDance may be influenced by China’s Communist Party, raising fears about the security of US user data. Failure to comply within 180 days would result in TikTok being removed from Apple and Google app stores in the US. The legislation also grants the president the authority to designate other apps as national security threats if controlled by countries considered adversarial to the US. Although the bill passed easily in the House, its fate in the Senate remains uncertain.
TikTok, with around 170 million US users, has strongly denied any ties to the Chinese government. A spokesperson for the company referred to the bill as a “ban” and urged the Senate not to rush the process. TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, was in Washington to garner support against the bill, emphasizing the economic impact on seven million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use the service. Beijing criticized the move, stating that despite no evidence of TikTok threatening US national security, the US continues to suppress the app, describing it as “bullying behavior” with warnings that such actions would have consequences for the United States.
Source: Reuters, AFP, AP
Assessment
While controversial, this is likely a positive move in terms of national security. Regardless of the app’s popularity, there is significant evidence that it collected substantial levels of personal data from a user’s device, more than could be justified for marketing or general analytics. Additionally, ByteDance, the app’s owner, has consistently stated that no data is stored in China or on Chinese servers, which experts have disputed.