Why the Parliament voted to ban it

A new law with updated wording that extends the deadline it gives the US government to the Chinese company ByteDance in order to sell its shares TikTok is going to be submitted for a vote on Senate the upcoming week.

According to a report by the Guardian, the US House of Representatives already voted in favor of the new law, with 360 delegates voting for and 58 against the legislation. The President of the United States himself, Joe Bidenhas said he will sign on to the bill when it is introduced in the Senate.

If the bill passes the Senate, it would be the first time the US government has passed a law to block an entire social media platform.

“This law protects Americans and especially American children from the malicious influence of Chinese propaganda on the TikTok app. This app is a hidden spy on Americans’ phones,” said Republican and Texas House of Representatives member Michael McCaul, who authored the legislation.

Before its update, the law in question gave Chinese company ByteDance six months to sell its shares in order for TikTok to continue operating in the US.

As the Guardian reports, this new legislation is part of the “foreign aid package” in favor of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan proposed by Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell. The main change concerns the extension of the time window of six months to twelve.

“As I have said, extending the window for the sale of TikTok is necessary to ensure there is sufficient time for a new buyer to complete the transaction. I support updating this legislation,” she said.

Why the Senate doesn’t want TikTok in the US

We note that the reason America insists on this position is because it is concerned about the leaking the personal information the app collects about its users into the hands of the Chinese government. In addition, there are fears of censorship of content that is against the Chinese government. In fact, last March, the head of the US Intelligence Service, Avril Haines, had warned that China could use TikTok to influence the outcome of the upcoming 2024 US presidential election.

Although ByteDance, which owns 100% of TikTok’s shares, is also a private company, American politicians emphasize its strong ties to the Chinese state.

For its part, TikTok has repeatedly emphasized that it has not and does not intend to share the data of American users with the Chinese government. “TikTok is an independent platform with its own leadership team, including a Singapore-based managing director, a US-based chief operating officer and a global trust leader based in Ireland. With this law, you will ban an app that contributes $24 billion to the US economy every year,” ByteDance insists.

But also the non-profit American media organization, NPR, commented that regarding the new law that “it is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is once again using as a cover the significant humanitarian aid abroad, in order to pass a banning law that would trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans.”