A possible US ban on TikTok took a step forward after a US House committee advanced a bill that would empower the president to prohibit the popular social media app along with other apps owned by companies based in China.
The bill known as the would give the president authority to ban foreign apps controlled or influenced by China and to sanction companies or individuals with ties to such apps. It cites that the Chinese Communist Party could lean on ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to share user data or to manipulate content.
If passed, the bill would also require the president to periodically review whether TikTok and ByteDance should be banned or sanctioned for up to three years after the act takes effect.
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鈥淎 US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide,鈥� said Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson, in a statement.
In a partisan split, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to advance the bill with 24 votes while all 16 Democrats voted no. The bill would need majority support from the Republican-dominated House to move on to the US Senate, where Democrats maintain control.
This comes one day after the White House directed federal agencies to from government phones and other devices. Meanwhile, the European Parliament also made the decision to from its staff devices this week.
The , a nonprofit that advocates for the protection of constitutional rights, has described the bill targeting TikTok as potentially violating First Amendment rights involving freedom of speech and expression given the app鈥檚 popularity with millions of Americans.
Like many popular US social media apps, TikTok has also been criticised for a lack of transparency on data privacy. A recent report from the nonprofit highlighted TikTok as one of the big offenders in misleading users about the data it shares with other companies.
