In a move that exposes the growing importance of digital platforms and the control of personal data in geopolitics, the
United States
appears determined to
ban TikTok
.
Last Thursday, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the
House of Representatives
unanimously
approved
a
bill
that would force the social network to
divest from its Chinese ownership
if it does not want to be banned on North American soil.
The project was approved by 50 votes in favor and none against in the legislative committee and would give, once approved,
180 days to ByteDance
, the company that owns TikTok,
to sell the application
.
The initiative still has a long way to go to be approved since it
needs the approval of both chambers
- the House of Representatives and the Senate - and the Government.
However,
White House
spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre spoke of an
"important"
project and the Republican leadership in the Lower House assured this Thursday that it will soon put the rule to a vote.
The bill was introduced by Republican Congressman
Mike Gallagher
and Democrat
Raja Krishnamoorthi
and has broad
bipartisan support
.
"As long as TikTok is owned by ByteDance,
controlled by the Chinese Communist Party
, it presents a
serious threat
to American national security," the two congressmen said in a joint statement.
The company assures that the bill represents in practice a
ban on the social network
.
The congressmen, however, assured "it can continue and people can do what they want as long as there is a separation" between TikTok and ByteDance.
"It's not a ban, it's like a surgical intervention designed to
remove a tumor and save the patient
in the process," the Republican said.
TikTok, also accused of interfering in the US elections
TikTok belongs to the ByteDance company.
(Photo: AP)
This week, the platform received
another setback
: the US intelligence community accused the Chinese government of having used TikTok to
influence the 2022 midterm elections
and warned that Beijing could try to interfere in this year's elections by his desire to
"widen the divisions of American society"
.
This appears in a report delivered this Monday to Congress by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates the 18 intelligence agencies of the United States.
According to the report,
Beijing used accounts on the app to harm candidates from both the Democratic and Republican Parties
during the 2022 elections, in which Democrats did better than expected by retaining the Senate and narrowly losing the Lower House. .
Likewise, with an eye to the future, he warns that the Chinese Executive could try to influence the November elections, in which, in addition to renewing the Lower House and a third of the Senate, if there are no surprises the Democratic president,
Joe Biden
, will face again with former Republican president
Donald Trump
.
"China may attempt to influence the 2024 US elections at some level due to its
desire to harm those critical of China
and widen divisions in US society," the document reads.
US intelligence agrees that Chinese government actors have "increased their ability to carry out covert actions and
spread disinformation
."
Trump, against the ban
Trump has a long history of clashes with social media companies.
(Photo: Reuters)
In the midst of the debate, former president and pre-candidate
Donald Trump
considered that TikTok poses a
national threat
, although
he was not in favor of banning it
, believing that doing so
would benefit Facebook
.
Trump stressed in an interview on CNBC
that
TikTok has many good things and also many bad things, but that
without that social network Facebook would grow
.
"And I believe that
Facebook is an enemy of the people
, as well as many other media," said the former president, who admitted that the decision in this regard is complicated.
The eventual veto of TikTok, in his opinion,
"would make Facebook and others, but mainly Facebook"
, its "big beneficiaries", and for Trump
Mark Zuckerberg
's platform is "very bad for the country".
Trump recently met at his Mar-a-Lago (Florida) mansion with billionaire
Jeff Yass
, a Republican donor and investor in TikTok.
For Steve Bannon, the main ideologue of the movement that catapulted Trump to the White House, the defense that the latter is making about TikTok has a justification:
"Simply: Yass money
," he said this weekend.
As president, Trump went so far as to ban
both TikTok and
via executive order
, but the measures faced legal challenges and
never went into effect
.
During that period of time ByteDance was negotiating with
Microsoft
to sell part of the company.
TikTok has about
170 million users
in the United States and has quickly become one of the most popular social networks in the world, especially among
young people
.
SL