According to the Hill newspaper, U.S. lawmakers from the House of Representatives have proposed a bill to ban the TikTok app. The bill "aims to protect Americans from applications overseen by foreign adversaries," the newspaper reported. Republican Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthy described ByteDance and TikTok as applications overseen by "foreign adversaries."
This law is expected to compel the Chinese company ByteDance (which owns TikTok) to divest from the app designed for filming and sharing short videos, or the platform will be banned in the United States. The newspaper added, "If the company does not divest from TikTok, its distribution via the App Store or web hosting platforms in the United States will become illegal, which will prohibit its use even for current users."
The bill will give ByteDance over five months after the law comes into effect to divest from TikTok. The newspaper also noted that the bill would allow the President to ban other applications overseen by foreign parties. It clarified that among the "foreign adversaries" included in the bill are China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. The bill will be considered tomorrow, Thursday, in a session of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
