The US Senate adopted a law on Tuesday asking social media giant TikTok to cut its ties with its parent company ByteDance, and more broadly with China, if it does not want to risk being banned in the United States.
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President Joe Biden immediately announced that he was going to promulgate the text, also adopted a few days earlier in the House of Representatives, the other component of the American Congress.
Candidate for re-election in November, the Democratic head of state reiterated his “concern” about TikTok during an exchange with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in early April.
Banning TikTok “would violate the freedom of expression” of 170 million Americans, the popular social network protested immediately after the vote in the House of Representatives on Saturday.
If it comes into force, the text will force ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell the application within twelve months, failing which it would be excluded from Apple and Google stores on American territory .
However, its potential ban risks being challenged in court.
Asked about this new law, the spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin, on Wednesday simply referred to “China’s principled position” in this matter.
In March, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, He Yadong, called on Washington to “respect the rules of the market economy” and indicated that Beijing would take “all necessary measures to preserve its legitimate rights and interests”.
The ultimatum from American legislators to the very popular social network is part of a gigantic package which notably includes aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, the latter having also been denounced by Beijing on Wednesday.
