China strikes back.
The country estimated on Wednesday that banning TikTok in the United States would amount to “shooting itself in the foot” for the world’s leading power.
TikTok has been in the crosshairs of American authorities for several months, with many officials believing that the short video application allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate its 170 million users in the United States, which the company fiercely denies .
The House of Representatives must vote on Wednesday on a bill that would force the application to cut all ties with its parent company ByteDance and more broadly with China, otherwise it would be banned in the United States.
What the bill provides
The measure, which passed unanimously in committee, would require ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to sell the app within 180 days or it would be barred from Apple's app stores and Google in the United States.
It would also give the president the power to designate other apps as a national security threat if they are controlled by a country considered hostile to the United States.
Also read: Chelsea Manning: “The American administration denouncing TikTok spying is ironic”
The project should be adopted by an overwhelming majority in a rare moment of understanding between the two parties at loggerheads.
By contrast, the bill's fate is uncertain in the Senate, where prominent figures oppose such a drastic measure against an extremely popular app.
A campaign of “intimidation”
A few hours before the vote, China slammed a campaign of “intimidation” against TikTok.
“The United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens its national security,” underlined a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin, when questioned on the subject.
Banning TikTok “will undermine the confidence of international investors (…) which would amount to shooting itself in the foot for the United States,” the spokesperson warned during a regular press briefing.
Parliamentarians in the United States are concerned about the links between TikTok and Chinese authorities, seeing for American users a risk of seeing their personal data transferred to China.
On several occasions, the group has assured that it has not received any requests from the Chinese government in this regard and assured that, if necessary, it would refuse.
Trump's change of heart
Despite suspicions in the United States, American President Joe Biden, campaigning for a second term, joined the TikTok application in February, very popular with young people and which allows him to reach potential voters.
Former President Donald Trump made a change of heart, saying on Monday that he was opposed to a ban, mainly because it would strengthen Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which he described as " enemy of the people.”
When he was president, Donald Trump attempted to wrest control of TikTok from ByteDance before being prevented from doing so by the American courts.
Donald Trump has refuted accusations that he changed his tune because a major investor in TikTok, hedge fund Jeff Yass, is donating to his campaign.
Other attempts to ban TikTok have also failed, with a bill proposed a year ago going nowhere, mainly due to free speech concerns.
Similarly, a law passed by the state of Montana to ban the platform was stayed by a federal court on the grounds that it likely violated constitutional free speech rights.