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The US House of Representatives has voted to ban TikTok from the United States for national security reasons. The bill, approved by a very large majority (352 yes against 65 no), gives the Chinese company ByteDance six months to sell the platform which, otherwise, will be banned. There are approximately 170 million Americans who use TikTok, including President Joe Biden. Now the law passes to the Senate, where it is not certain that it will be approved.
TikTok has always denied any ties to the Chinese government and has decided to restructure the company so that American users’ data remains in the United States.
Beijing: ban will backfire on the US
Banning the video sharing app in the US “would inevitably backfire against the United States“. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said this before the vote, according to which Washington, “despite never finding evidence that TikTok threatens American national security, has never stopped repressing TikTok.” The moves against the popular app are part of “bullying behavior,” Wang added at the daily briefing.
Ocasio-Cortez criticizes the bill
“I will vote no to the forced sale of TikTok, this law was rushed incredibly, from committee to vote in four days, with very little explanation.” Thus Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the left, seems to find herself strangely in tune with Donald Trump in opposing the law. “There are serious antitrust and privacy issues and national security concerns at stake that should be explained to the public before the vote,” added the New York congresswoman on X, who with her position gives voice to the young progressives who are among the users of the social media very popular among Americans under 30.
Biden in favor of the tightening, Trump against
Joe Biden has already said that he will sign the law if it is approved by Congress, while Trump, who when he was in the White House called for a similar measure several times, declaring TikTok “a threat to national security”, has instead changed his position, appearing skeptical about law and ban.