The US House of Representatives adopted a bill on Wednesday which provides for the ban on TikTok in the United States if the social network does not cut ties with its parent company ByteDance and more broadly with China.
This is a major development for the platform, which did not seem threatened until a few days ago, even if the outcome of the upcoming vote in the Senate remains uncertain.
Prominent figures are opposing such a drastic measure against a hugely popular app.
The text of the law, adopted by a large majority of 352 votes out of 432 elected officials, “does not ban TikTok,” argued the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, who voted in favor of the bill. proposal.
“It aims to resolve legitimate national security and data protection concerns related to the Chinese Communist Party’s relationship with a social network,” he explained in a statement.
“Allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the United States while under the control of the Chinese Communist Party is simply unacceptable,” commented former Republican Vice President Mike Pence in a statement.
ByteDance forced to sell?
US President Joe Biden said that if passed in the Senate, he would sign into law the bill, known officially as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. foreign adversaries).
At the beginning of February, the Democratic president, campaigning for his re-election, had nevertheless joined the platform nine months before the presidential elections.
The bill, if passed, would force ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to sell the app within 180 days or it would be barred from Apple and Google's app stores in the states. -United.
It would also give the US president the power to designate other apps as a threat to national security if they are controlled by a country considered hostile.
Also read: TikTok: how cybercriminal networks thrive on hacking popular accounts
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is in Washington, where he is trying to build support to block the bill.
“This latest legislation, passed at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing, poses serious constitutional problems,” wrote Michael Beckerman, TikTok vice president of public policy, in a letter to advocates of the bill of which AFP has taken note.
Donald Trump's change of heart
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 .
Several states and the federal government have banned the use of the application on official government devices, citing risks to national security.
Former US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, made a U-turn, saying on Monday that he was opposed to a ban, mainly because it would strengthen Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which he called "a 'enemy of the people', while refuting accusations that he changed his tune because a major TikTok investor, Jeff Yass, had threatened to no longer contribute to the financing of Republican electoral campaigns.
In 2020, he attempted to wrest control of TikTok from ByteDance before being prevented from doing so by the American courts.
Other attempts to ban TikTok have also failed, with a bill proposed a year ago failing to succeed, primarily due to concerns over free speech.
As for the current proposal, “it is too general a text, which will not withstand the examination of the first amendment” to the American Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, reacted the elected Democrat in the House Ro Khanna.
“A bullet in the foot”
On Wednesday, 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,” he warned.