Tech

US House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Ban TikTok Amid National Security Concerns

The Chinese social networking app Tiktok, which is hugely popular among children, was outlawed in the US on Wednesday by the House of Representatives. In 2020, India became the first nation to outlaw TikTok when it came to light that the well-known Chinese social media site was being used for eavesdropping and collecting personal information. The bill, which was approved by the House 352 to 65, is now on its way to the US Senate before being submitted to the White House to be signed into law by the president. On the Democratic side, 155 parliamentarians supported the bill and 50 opposed, while 197 Republican lawmakers voted in favor of the measure and 15 against.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic member from India, worked with Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher to draft the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.” This is unrelated to TikTok and is not a ban. This is because ByteDance is in complete control of TikTok. ByteDance is governed by the Chinese Communist Party. The secretary of the Chinese Communist Party cell embedded at the highest levels of the organization is the editor-in-chief of ByteDance, according to Krishnamoorthi. According to him, the bill guarantees that ByteDance would give up the great majority of its ownership stake in TikTok. “We want TikTok to stay in business, but not under the CCP’s jurisdiction,” Krishnamoorthi stated.

It is simply intolerable, according to former Vice President Mike Pence, for TikTok to continue functioning in the United States while under CCP control. Pence added that the adoption of this legislation shows that appeasement to Communist China is finished. “This measure needs to be taken up by the Senate and sent to President Biden’s desk as soon as feasible. He insisted, “The American administration must not back down now. The AAF will never waver in its determination to taking on China both at home and abroad. The bill’s resounding and bipartisan passage, according to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is a powerful declaration of Congress’s dedication to national security and data privacy.

To be clear, TikTok is not prohibited by this legislation. I concur with my colleagues that the platform has great entertainment, educational, and entrepreneurial potential, particularly for the younger demographic. Rather than weakening TikTok, this bill would protect American data and algorithmic control from overseas competitors. “By doing this, we safeguard against influence operations and monitoring, which are characteristics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” the speaker stated. Pelosi stated that repressed communities in China, such as the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong residents, and others, are informing her that their accounts of their suffering are being suppressed or misrepresented on TikTok.

Concurrently, the CCP disseminates disinformation in order to conceal its horrible misdeeds. Pelosi declared, “We cannot allow Beijing to bury the truth of its appalling record on human rights,” and she asked the Senate to vote on related measures as soon as possible. “The legislation will be reviewed by the Senate upon its receipt from the House,” stated Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, stated that the mental health of young Americans and US national security are seriously threatened by CCP-controlled TikTok.

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“This past week showed that the Chinese Communist Party can incite users of the platform to engage in a variety of risky, unstable activities.” “This bill should clear the Senate and head straight to the president’s desk,” said he. Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Mark R. Warner and Bad Habit Chairman Marco Rubio have expressed concern over TikTok’s potential to compromise national security. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, a stage that can strongly partition and influence Americans, still owes the Chinese Communist Party legal duties. The two senators expressed their excitement about cooperating to see this bill through the Senate and signed into law, saying, “We were encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives.”