The US House of Representatives adopted a bill on Wednesday which provides for the ban on TikTok in the United States if the social network does not cut ties with its parent company, ByteDance, and more broadly with China.
This is a major development for the platform, although the outcome of the upcoming Senate vote remains uncertain.
Faced with this threat, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, called on his 170 million users in the United States to react massively. “Make yourself heard,” he said on TikTok and on X after the vote, less than eight months before the November presidential election.
TikTok has been in the crosshairs of American authorities for several months, with many officials believing that the platform of short and entertaining videos allows Beijing to spy and manipulate citizens.
The company has repeatedly denied having transmitted information to the Chinese authorities and assured that it would refuse any possible request in this regard.
The text of the law, adopted by a large majority of 352 votes out of 432 elected officials, “does not ban TikTok,” argued the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, who voted for the proposal.
“It aims to resolve legitimate national security and data protection concerns related to the Chinese Communist Party’s relationship with a social network,” he explained in a statement.
“Secret” process
“This process was carried out in secret and the text presented urgently for one reason: it is a ban,” reacted a TikTok spokesperson to AFP. We hope that the Senate will take the facts into account, listen to its constituents and realize the impact (that a ban would have) on the economy. »
“Today’s vote, which brought together elected officials from both parties, demonstrates Congress’ opposition to Communist China’s attempts to spy and manipulate Americans and is a sign of our determination to deter our enemies.” , declared the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
Ahead of the vote, China had indicated that a ban would undermine “the confidence of international investors” and would amount, for the world’s leading power, to “shooting itself in the foot”, according to a diplomatic spokesperson. Chinese, criticizing the “intimidation” against TikTok.
The bill’s fate is uncertain in the Senate, where high-profile figures oppose such a sweeping measure against a hugely popular app.
The leader of the Democrats in the upper house, Chuck Schumer, simply took note of the vote on Wednesday, without commenting on the text.
US President Joe Biden said that if passed in the Senate, he would sign the text into law.
The proposed law would require ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app within 180 days or it would be barred from Apple and Google’s app stores in the United States.
No potential buyer has yet officially come forward. THE Wall Street Journal reports that the former boss of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, has expressed his interest to the co-founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming.
The value of TikTok is difficult to estimate, especially in the case of a forced sale. In 2020, ByteDance set its price at $60 billion when Donald Trump’s government wanted to force it to sell it, according to the Bloomberg agency.
Freedom of expression
Several US states and the federal government have banned the app’s use on government officials’ official devices, citing national security risks.
Shou Zi Chew is in Washington, where he is trying to build support to block the bill.
Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) reversed course by saying on Monday that he was opposed to a ban, mainly because it would strengthen Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which he called of “enemy of the people”.
In 2020, the real estate developer, then president of the United States, attempted to wrest control of TikTok from ByteDance before being prevented from doing so by the American courts.
Mr. Trump has refuted accusations that he changed his tune because a major investor in TikTok, Jeff Yass, had threatened to no longer contribute to financing Republican election campaigns.
Other attempts to ban TikTok have also failed, with a bill proposed a year ago failing to succeed, primarily due to concerns over free speech.
As for the current proposal, “it is too general a text, which will not withstand the examination of the first amendment” to the American Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression, reacted the elected Democrat in the House Ro Khanna.
A law passed in May by the state of Montana (northwest) to ban the platform was suspended by a federal court in November on the grounds that it violated constitutional rights to freedom of expression.
“The other problem is that a lot of people make their living with this platform” in the United States, added Ro Khanna to journalists.
