WASHINGTON: A bill mandating TikTok to separate from its Chinese owner or face expulsion from the US was overwhelmingly approved by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday.
In a rare instance of bipartisanship in politically divided Washington, the lawmakers voted 352 times in favor of the proposed measure and 65 times against.
The bill’s future in the Senate is in doubt because several influential senators are wary of taking such a strong stance against an app that has 170 million US users.
If the measure reaches President Joe Biden’s desk, it will be signed into law as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” according to the White House.
The law, which has only gained traction in the last few days, mandates that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance sell the app within 180 days or risk having it removed from the US versions of the Apple and Google app stores.
Additionally, it grants the president the authority to declare additional applications to be a threat to national security if they are controlled by a nation that the US considers an enemy.
Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, is in Washington, DC, attempting to rally opposition to the law.
Vice president of public policy at TikTok Michael Beckerman commented, “This latest legislation being rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing, poses serious Constitutional concerns.”
The White House and the bill’s co-sponsors, House Republicans Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, contend that TikTok is not prohibited by the legislation as long as the firm divests from ByteDance.
China issued a warning on Wednesday, stating that the United States will “inevitably be bitten by this move.”
A spokesman for the foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, stated, “The US has not stopped suppressing TikTok even though it has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security.”
