• The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would offer TikTok a crackdown, the popular social media app in the U.S. if Chinese owner ByteDance did not sell its stake within a year.
  • TikTok claims this ban bill would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans.
  • The latest bill could be regarded as “no real payoff,” because China and other U.S. rivals could still buy Americans’ data from brokers in the open market and engage in disinformation campaigns using U.S.-based social media platforms.

TikTok reiterated its concerns on Sunday regarding free speech in response to a bill enacted by the House of Representatives that would have prohibited the popular social media app in the United States if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, did not sell its stake within a year.

About the Bill

By a vote of 360 to 58, the House of Representatives approved the legislation on Saturday. The Senate will now consider it, and in the upcoming days, a vote on it may be held.

TikTok is a national security risk, according to numerous Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the United States as well as the Biden administration, since China may force the company to share the data of its 170 million American users.

The move to incorporate TikTok into a larger foreign aid package could expedite the possibility of a ban following the Senate’s inaction on a previous bill.

The House decided on March 13 to impose a six-month deadline on ByteDance to sell off its U.S. assets from TikTok or risk being banned. Although the legislation that was passed on Saturday sets a nine-month deadline, the president can extend it by an additional three months to assess the status of the sale.

In a statement, TikTok expressed regret that the House is once again trying to push through a ban bill that would violate the free speech rights of 170 million Americans under the guise of crucial foreign and humanitarian aid.

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Also read: US Senate says to extend TikTok sale deadline til after elections

Perceptions of the Bill

Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee stated on Sunday that “many young people” use TikTok to obtain news and suggested that the Chinese government may use the app as a propaganda tool.

TikTok insists it has never shared U.S. data and never would.

The most recent bill, according to the free speech organization Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, has “no real payoff,” as China and other adversaries of the United States could still purchase American data from brokers on the open market and use American-based social media platforms to spread misinformation.

Some Democrats have also raised free speech concerns over a ban and instead asked for stronger data privacy legislation.