A US law that is intended to force a change of ownership of the short video app Tiktok has cleared the first parliamentary hurdle. The House of Representatives in Washington DC approved it on Wednesday with 352 yes votes to 65 no votes. The law now goes to the US Senate, where the positions are still unclear.
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US President Joe Biden has already made it clear that he would sign the law. Skeptics point out that the law is likely to keep the courts busy for years because it could be vulnerable to the freedom of speech enshrined in the US Constitution. This was a reason for Democrat Jim Himes, for example, not to support the law.
Bytedance wants to defend itself
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PDF) could result in Tiktok being banned from US app stores if Bytedance continues to own the app. This company is seen across all parties in the USA as a Chinese company that is subject to the will of the local Communist Party. Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, emphasized this after the vote. China is using technology to undermine America's security and economy. His party colleague Elise Stefanik even spoke of malware that poisoned the minds of young people.
According to a media report, Bytedance is determined to exhaust all legal remedies against an impending ban in the USA before considering a sale. A separation from Tiktok is seen as a last option, the financial service Bloomberg wrote on Tuesday, citing informed people. According to its own information, Tiktok has 170 million users in the USA. During his term as US President, Donald Trump tried to force a sale of Tiktok's US business to American investors with threats of a ban. Trump has now backed away from his previous position.
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Influence from abroad
US lawyers suspect that the plans for a Tiktok ban violate the freedom of speech enshrined in the US Constitution. A current law in the state of Montana that was supposed to ban Tiktok from the app stores there is also on hold. Tiktok has sued there against the ban. The law now passed by the House of Representatives extends not only to Tiktok, but to all social media applications that are controlled by companies in “adversary foreign countries”. It is intended to give the US President the power to ban such apps if they have more than a million users.
(anw)