The US House of Representatives passed a bill aiming to ban TikTok in the United States.
It finally happened: The US House of Representatives have passed a bill which could see TikTok banned in the land of the free. To be clear, the bill hasn't been passed into law yet; the Senate still need to approve, and only then could Biden sign it into law. But considering the popularity of this bill among US politicians and the President himself, it looks likely to go through.
The bill would give the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, 6 months to sell the social media giant before it would be blocked in the US.
TikTok To Be Banned In The US
The government’s main concern over TikTok regards security of user data. As a Chinese company, ByteDance are required to share requested data with the Chinese government, which is obviously a huge red flag for American politicians.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said previously that the company was committed to keeping its data secure. But this was put into doubt via an investigation conducted by the Wall Street Journal in January.
This decision was met with a lot of criticism online, as well protests outside the House of Representatives. Among those concerned are content creators who earn their living on TikTok, who are rightfully afraid of suddenly losing their income due to a decision by lawmakers.
Many see this move as showing how out-of-touch American politicians are with the general populace, especially younger people (a large pool of potential voters). And to be fair, Representatives are not helping beat these allegations:
hell yeah nancy. tic tac toe, tickle me elmo, ticketmaster. just say whatever comes to mind queen https://t.co/VC9cbgYMmg
— soul khan (@soulkhan) March 13, 2024
Should this be put into law, which seems more like a question of “when” rather than “if”, then TikTok might not be the only social media platform affected. The bill also covers any company which is “determined by the President to present a significant threat to the national security of the United States”. Which… could be anything? Maybe this will finally be able to stop X, so there are some potential silver linings here.