In a significant development on Capitol Hill, a key committee has taken a step that could lead to the prohibition of the popular social media app TikTok in the United States.
What Happened: The House Energy and Commerce Committee has united across party lines to move forward a bill that may result in a TikTok ban. According to Forbes on Thursday, the committee voted in favor of the bill.
The bill seeks to prevent app stores from hosting TikTok unless its parent company, ByteDance, divests its ownership. This decisive step comes as around 170 million American users of TikTok received messages urging them to contest the congressional ban.
Should the bill pass both the House and Senate, it would be up to President Joe Biden to sign it into law. Despite using the platform for his reelection campaign, Biden has shown support for the bill. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise commended the bill as a "critical national security bill" and plans to bring it to the House floor next week.
Why It Matters: The unanimous vote by the committee highlights the bipartisan apprehension concerning TikTok's data security practices and its connections to China. This legislative action is part of a broader trend of increasing scrutiny and the potential reshaping of policies regarding social media platforms under foreign control.
Previously, 18 state attorneys general, including those from Virginia, backed Montana's initiative to ban TikTok, emphasizing the app's alleged deceptive practices and threats to privacy and national security.
In November, a federal judge temporarily blocked Montana's TikTok ban, which was set to commence the following year. The app's owners argued that the ban violated free speech rights and was based on unsubstantiated national security concerns.
Furthermore, legislators have been vocal about their concerns regarding TikTok's content moderation policies. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) called for a TikTok ban, citing the platform's alleged bias in content related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
