Around twenty American elected officials in the House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats, announced on Wednesday their desire to pass a law banning TikTok in the United States, unless the social network cuts its ties with its parent company, ByteDance , and more broadly with China.
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“We came together, ten Democrats and ten Republicans, to introduce legislation that would ban TikTok from operating in the United States unless it cuts ties with ByteDance or any entity controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” , declared during a press conference the chairman of the House Committee in charge of the CCP, Mike Gallagher, elected Republican.
His Democratic colleague Raja Krishnamoorthi, for his part, assured that “this is not a ban. The ball is in the court of ByteDance or any other social networking application that would belong to a foreign state.
According to him, “ByteDance has repeatedly used its TikTok platform to undermine not only American national security but also the interests of its users,” adding that evidence of a link between the social network’s parent company and the military Chinese were real.
“We implore ByteDance to sell TikTok so that American users continue to benefit” from the application but also elected officials want them to “tell ByteDance to sell the platform,” added Mr. Krishnamoorthi.
Questioned by AFP, a spokesperson for the social network estimated that this law was “a pure and simple ban on TikTok, no matter how its authors try to hide it”.
“This far will trample on the First Amendment (which defends freedom of expression, editor’s note) of 170 million Americans and will deprive five million small businesses of a platform on which they count to grow and create jobs,” a- he added.
The White House, on the other hand, described this proposed law as “interesting, a welcome measure to confront the threat,” according to a spokesperson interviewed by AFP. “We welcome the work done by (Messrs.) Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi and look forward to working with Congress to further strengthen this bill,” he added.
Several states and the federal government have banned use of the app on official government devices, citing national security risks.
In Montana (northwest), a judge recently blocked an initiative by the state government to completely ban the application.
Although the application continues to be under Washington’s surveillance, no federal measures to ban or restrict the use of the social network no longer appear to be considered at this time.
TikTok has been in the crosshairs of American authorities for several months, with many officials believing that the short and entertaining video platform allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate its 150 million users in the United States. The company has always denied these accusations.
