Joe Biden vows to sign TikTok bill forcing China’s ByteDance to divest as Donald Trump voices concern

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The bill is sponsored by Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher and Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

The legislation aims to curb the influence of foreign-controlled apps within the US.

Specifically, it would give ByteDance 165 days to divest from TikTok. If it failed to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web-hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has thrown his weight behind the legislation, which is expected to come to a vote as early as next week.

State media blasts ‘anti-China show’ as US lawmakers seek to force sale of TikTok

On Friday, the select committee’s leadership voiced gratitude for the support of its counterparts on the energy and commerce panel, saying “TikTok poses a serious threat to US national security” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Since taking office, the Biden administration has maintained an ambiguous stance towards TikTok.

While federal government-owned phones and devices have been barred from using the app, the administration has stopped short of enforcing the ban imposed by former president Donald Trump in 2020.
Trump’s ban, which also targeted Chinese-owned WeChat, was subsequently overturned by several courts.

In his ruling at the time, US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, said the administration’s officials had failed “to adequately consider an obvious and reasonable alternative” before banning TikTok.

TikTok, which says it has not and would not share American user data with the Chinese government, argues the US House bill amounts to a ban. Photo: dpa

Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed concern about TikTok’s implications for US national security.

“I think that we still need to find a way to follow India, which has banned TikTok. I’m a little worried about a mixed message,” said Warner, referring to New Delhi’s decision in 2020.

But Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, sounded a note of caution following Biden’s comments on Friday, despite his past efforts against the popular app.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” the former president said on Friday in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, alluding to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

China to block new US moves forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok, analysts say

“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last election, doing better,” Trump added, referring to the 2020 US presidential race. “They are a true enemy of the people.”

Meanwhile, following the House panel’s vote on Thursday, Congress members “were inundated with calls from angry constituents after TikTok told its users that the popular social media app was at risk of being shut down in the US”, according to Axios.

TikTok has yet to respond to Biden’s latest comments.

Analysts have said it is unlikely China will approve any moves by ByteDance to divest from the platform.

In 2020 the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology introduced regulations that could prevent TikTok’s algorithm from being exported.

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