President Joe Biden signed a bill at the White House on Wednesday, April 24 that could ban TikTok in the U.S. due to suspicions about the Chinese government’s data-gathering and surveillance. The U.S. government believes that the Chinese government is using TikTok to gather information and data from TikTok users. The ban will go through if the app is not purchased within the next three to nine months.
“U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that TikTok threatens national security because the Chinese government could use it to spy on Americans or weaponize it to covertly influence the U.S. public by amplifying or suppressing certain content,” CBS News reported.
Lawmakers are concerned because the company that owns TikTok is connected with China. They worry that ByteDance, the owner of the app, or the app itself will share U.S. TikTok users’ data with the Chinese government.
Due to this, President Joe Biden signed a bill that could possibly ban TikTok nationwide. A foreign aid package was bundled into the bill and was approved by the House on Saturday, April 27 and by the Senate on Tuesday, April 30. The foreign aid package requires ByteDance to sell the app and if another owner does not purchase the app within the next three to nine months, TikTok will be banned in the U.S.
“There aren’t a lot of people sitting nearby with the billions and billions of dollars that might be needed to buy TikTok,” Scott Macfarlane, CBS News Congressional Correspondent, said. “This offers more time, and to a degree, it offers an opening to more senators and members of the U.S. House to get on board.”
The bill also provides assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, which makes it difficult for some lawmakers to oppose the vote over the bill.
This legislation would give $61 billion to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel, and $8 billion to Taiwan.
As reported by CBS News, the bill to ban TikTok crosses with the presidential inauguration, a new track with how TikTok is going to be dealt with can be taken if former president Donald Trump wins the election.
“I’m not sure Trump would be as bound to pursue what the Biden administration would want,” CBS News reported. “He could use it as a point of leverage with China.”
TikTok has made U.S. lawmakers and securities more concerned about the fact that the Chinese government can be taking the data of millions of American TikTok users.
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, who is opposed to the bill, says that the U.S. government has put a lot of money towards ensuring that the U.S. government’s and citizen’s data is protected. “The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation,” a TikTok spokesperson stated. “This ban would devastate 7 million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
Billionaire Elon Musk is in opposition to the ban and has said that it is “contrary to freedom of speech and expression,” according to forbes.com.
Despite TikTok’s commitment to keeping millions of Americans’ data safe, the bill to ban TikTok has gone through. It remains to be seen whether TikTok will be banned in the U.S. or if there will be a new buyer to take over ownership of the app.
