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TikTok
TechPolicy

US House panel to vote next month on possible nationwide ban of popular short video app TikTok

  • The measure would aim to give the White House the legal tools to ban TikTok in the US over national security concerns
  • A TikTok spokeswoman described a total ban of the app as a ‘piecemeal approach to national security’

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If Congress enacts a ban on TikTok this year, it would pressure President Joe Biden’s administration to force a sale of the app’s US operations by its Chinese parent ByteDance. Photo: Shutterstock
ReutersandBloomberg
The United States’ House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote next month on a bill aimed at blocking the use of China’s popular social media app TikTok in the US, the committee confirmed on Friday.
The measure, planned by the panel’s chair Representative Michael McCaul, would aim to give the White House the legal tools to ban TikTok over national security concerns.

“The concern is that this app gives the Chinese government a back door into our phones,” McCaul told Bloomberg News, which reported the vote’s timing earlier.

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In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked the short video-sharing app’s use in the country, but lost a series of court battles over the measure.
US Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said he is skeptical that any proposed firewall between TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance would adequately protect US users. Photo: Tribune News Service
US Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said he is skeptical that any proposed firewall between TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance would adequately protect US users. Photo: Tribune News Service
In June 2021, the Biden administration formally abandoned that effort. Then in December, Republican Senator Marco Rubio unveiled bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok, which would also block all transactions from any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia.
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