The House of Representatives passed the bipartisan legislation on Wednesday morning to ban TikTok from the U.S. as the bill advances to the Senate.
If the social media platform were to be passed in the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has a six-month period to divest from the platform before the app stores were to have prohibitive access.
TikTok has been under fire in recent months for its targeting kids and teens under 16 and under for vulnerability leading up to suicide.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified late last year before Congress about the use of algorithms harming the mental health of children the breach of privacy including the IPN numbers.
President Biden earlier had urged the parent company to sell TikTok but has come in support of the bipartisan legislation to ban the platform in the U.S. permanently.
“Every national security official in the Biden administration has warned about the national security threat posed by TikTok under its current ownership structure,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.). “That’s what we’re trying to get at. Not a ban, but a separation. Think of it as a surgery designed to remove the tumor from the patient and allow the patient to survive.”
TikTok has been popular among younger people that includes influencers, small businesses, and celebrities where they have thrived on the platform.
Lawmakers expressed concern about national security risks that TikTok has presented itself in the United States.
In a previous effort during the Donald Trump presidency, the former president tried to force the ban of sale of TikTok in 2020 but the effort was blocked by the federal courts.
TikTok had been incorporated in the U.S. with its North American headquarters in Culver City, California.
The company had claimed that it has never shared any user data with anyone else, including the Chinese government.
“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” the company said in a statement.
Elsewhere, TikTok has been banned on government servers including tablets and smartphone notably on the federal and state level.
Florida had banned the app on the government and university servers in the state, while it’s accessible in Florida’s State University System including most notably the University of Florida, Florida State University, and Florida International University.
The Biden administration would pressure Beijing to force the parent company to sell the social media platform during the six-month period it would have to divest from TikTok.
