House Passes Bill That Requires PRC-Controlled Bytedance to Sell TikTok or Face Ban in the U.S.
Cristiano Lima-Strong, Jacob Bogage, and Mariana Alfaro, reporting for The Washington Post:
The House overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday to force
TikTok to split from its parent company or face a national ban, a
lightning offensive that materialized abruptly after years of
unsuccessful negotiations over the platform’s fate. The
legislation, approved 352 to 65, is a sweeping bipartisan
rebuke of the popular video-sharing app — and an attempt to
grapple with allegations that TikTok’s China-based parent,
ByteDance, presents national security risks.
For years, lawmakers have been introducing proposals seeking to
restrict the company’s activities in the U.S., and finding limited
momentum. But these lengthy behind-the-scenes deliberations were
hastened, lawmakers said, by the Biden administration’s growing
support of the effort, coupled with concerns about TikTok’s
potential to influence U.S. politics, which intensified after
the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Private briefings from national security and law enforcement
officials, including a classified hearing last week, served as a
“call to action” for Congress to “finally” take a stand against
TikTok, said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), a member of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee. It’s unclear whether these meetings
with the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of the
National Intelligence surfaced new evidence against the company.
It seems pretty clear those briefings did surface alarming evidence. The two concerns about TikTok are that (a) the Chinese government is using it to surveil Americans; and (b) that it serves as a powerful propaganda vehicle for the PRC. It’s the letter concern — propaganda — that has had me calling for a TikTok ban (or divestiture by ByteDance) for years.
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Cristiano Lima-Strong, Jacob Bogage, and Mariana Alfaro, reporting for The Washington Post:
The House overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday to force
TikTok to split from its parent company or face a national ban, a
lightning offensive that materialized abruptly after years of
unsuccessful negotiations over the platform’s fate. The
legislation, approved 352 to 65, is a sweeping bipartisan
rebuke of the popular video-sharing app — and an attempt to
grapple with allegations that TikTok’s China-based parent,
ByteDance, presents national security risks.
For years, lawmakers have been introducing proposals seeking to
restrict the company’s activities in the U.S., and finding limited
momentum. But these lengthy behind-the-scenes deliberations were
hastened, lawmakers said, by the Biden administration’s growing
support of the effort, coupled with concerns about TikTok’s
potential to influence U.S. politics, which intensified after
the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Private briefings from national security and law enforcement
officials, including a classified hearing last week, served as a
“call to action” for Congress to “finally” take a stand against
TikTok, said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), a member of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee. It’s unclear whether these meetings
with the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of the
National Intelligence surfaced new evidence against the company.
It seems pretty clear those briefings did surface alarming evidence. The two concerns about TikTok are that (a) the Chinese government is using it to surveil Americans; and (b) that it serves as a powerful propaganda vehicle for the PRC. It’s the letter concern — propaganda — that has had me calling for a TikTok ban (or divestiture by ByteDance) for years.