The US Congress had a lot to work on this Saturday. Lawmakers were set to vote to ban TikTok in the United States, a measure related to legislation related to a major aid plan for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
And the US House of Representatives voted for ban on Chinese use on American soil. The measure will immediately be considered by the Senate. If it goes into effect, the text would force ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell the app within months or face removal from Apple and Google’s US app stores.
The reaction from the social network was immediate. Banning TikTok would “violate the free speech” of 170 million Americans, the video platform has thundered. In an email to AFP, a spokesman for the chain, controlled by the Chinese group ByteDance, added that the proposed ban would “destroy 7 million businesses and shut down a platform that contributes $24 billion a year to the American economy.”
Washington accuses TikTok of allowing Beijing to spy on and manipulate its US users. The Biden administration said it is “very supportive” of the text.
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The measure was added to the relief plan in hopes of facilitating its passage in both houses of Congress after similar text passed by representatives in mid-March then remained in parliamentary limbo. “It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the pretext of significant foreign and humanitarian aid to once again push through a proposed ban that would violate the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” a TikTok spokesperson responded on Thursday.
“In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the US, even if such a ban could benefit Platform X,” Elon Musk said on the social network, which he bought at the end of 2022. This would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. This is not what America stands for. » In the comments under their post, X users expressed concern that the TikTok ban would create a precedent that could be used against other social networks.
Because the law against the ByteDance platform would also give the US President the power to designate other apps as national security threats if they are controlled by a country considered hostile to the United States.
Source: Le Parisien
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
