TikTok could soon be banned in the United States if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform, according to legislation passed by the House on Saturday.
An earlier version of the new bill, which was attempting to give the China-based company a six-month deadline to sell the app, stalled in the Senate last month, even after Democrats and Republicans voiced concerns over national security.
The revised bill has now been combined with a larger foreign-aid package, including support for Israel and Ukraine, and is being fast-tracked to the Senate where it again awaits approval.
ByteDance has consistently pushed back against the legislation, and encouraged its 170 million U.S. users to contact Congress and express their opposition to the ban.
“We will not stop fighting and advocating for you,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video from March addressed to TikTok users. “We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you.”
If the modified legislation passes successfully, it will extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell to nine months, with an additional three months available if a sale is in progress.
For months, politicians have expressed fear over American data falling into the hands of the Chinese government through the app, or the idea that the Chinese government could potentially influence American youth through TikTok content.
So far, TikTok has been adamant that it’s not influenced by the Chinese government and has not shared American user data with any foreign nationals.
With News Wire Services