US President announces he will sign bill to punish TikTok

On March 9, Reuters quoted US President Joe Biden as saying he was ready to sign a bill allowing Chinese conglomerate ByteDance to divest from the TikTok app within six months. If ByteDance refuses this plan, Washington will ban the app from operating in the US.

Previously, on March 7, the US House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance a bill forcing ByteDance - TikTok's parent company, to divest ownership of the application within 6 months, otherwise it will be completely banned in this country.

US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address at the US Congress on March 8. (Photo: Bloomberg)

The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on a new bill targeting TikTok on March 12 or March 13.

“If the US House of Representatives passes the bill, I will sign it,” Mr. Biden emphasized.

However, the new sanctions bill targeting TikTok may face "barriers" in the US Senate when lawmakers want to amend part of this bill.

In a statement on March 8, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he opposed banning TikTok, saying the bill would benefit other social networks like Facebook.

The bill from the US House Energy and Commerce Committee gives ByteDance 165 days to divest ownership of the TikTok app, otherwise app stores managed by Apple, Google and others will not be allowed to provide web hosting services for ByteDance-managed apps.

In response to the decision, TikTok posted a warning to users that a complete ban would damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of many creators across the US, and prevent artists from connecting with their audiences.

The new bill's passage marks the strongest US move against TikTok since then-President Donald Trump's unsuccessful attempt to ban the app in 2020.

Similar efforts over the past year have also stalled due to TikTok's lobbying efforts.

Last November, a US judge rejected a ban on social media platform TikTok that Montana had previously imposed, which was supposed to take effect on January 1, 2024. The app currently has about 170 million users in the US.

TikTok is also under scrutiny from regulators around the world over concerns about the company’s misuse of user data, with countries including the UK and New Zealand banning the app from government phones.

Meanwhile, TikTok has repeatedly denied the above allegations.

Tra Khanh (Source: Reuters)

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