Ultimatum issued

Automatically saved draft

The parliamentary initiative against TikTok stems from data protection concerns: ByteDance is suspected of giving the Communist Party, which dominates everything in China, access to user data.

(Bild: Rafael Henrique – stock.adobe.com)

The US House of Representatives has made a new attempt at a possible ban on the online service TikTok in the USA. On Saturday, the House of Representatives gave TikTok an ultimatum for its separation from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. The video app, which is particularly popular with young people, is suspected of enabling Beijing to spy on and manipulate the 170 million TikTok users in the USA. The company rejects this.

The bill, which sets ByteDance a deadline of one year to sell TikTok, received broad support from Republicans and Democrats and was passed by 360 votes to 58. If TikTok fails to meet the ultimatum, the app would be banned from the Apple and Google app stores in the USA, according to the resolution. For the law to come into force, however, the Senate still has to give its approval, which will deal with it next week. US President Joe Biden has already announced that he will sign the law once it has been passed by Congress.

However, the plan could become a case for the US courts. The planned law would give US President Joe Biden the authority to classify other apps as a threat to national security if they are controlled by a country that is considered hostile.

The US Congress in Washington

(Bild: Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Bill stuck in the Senate
The House of Representatives had already passed a similar TikTok bill in March, but the bill was subsequently stuck in the Senate. This time, the bill was incorporated into a legislative package on foreign aid, particularly for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a volume of 95 billion dollars (a good 89 billion euros), for which the House of Representatives also gave the green light on Saturday.

The parliamentary initiative against TikTok stems from data protection concerns: ByteDance is suspected of giving the Communist Party, which dominates everything in China, access to user data.

TikTok reacted immediately to the vote in the House of Representatives. A ban would restrict the "freedom of expression" of 170 million Americans, the platform explained. It was regrettable that the House of Representatives was trying to "push through another ban bill under the guise of important foreign and humanitarian aid", explained a company spokesperson. The platform contributes "24 billion dollars annually to the US economy".

Musk warns against ban
The owner of the online service X, Elon Musk, also spoke out against a TikTok ban on Friday. "TikTok should not be banned in the US, even if such a ban could benefit the X platform," explained Musk. "Such a ban would violate freedom of speech and expression."

On the one hand, US President Joe Biden wants to take a tough stance on China, but on the other, he must not scare away young voters by banning their favorite platform.

(Bild: AP)

TikTok is immensely popular, especially among young people, and has long since overtaken competitors such as Facebook and Instagram in terms of usage times. TikTok has more than one billion users worldwide. However, TikTok is also under increased political pressure in the EU. In March, EU rules came into force that aim to limit the market power of ByteDance and other large digital companies such as Amazon, Apple and Meta.