A bipartisan bill that would require Chinese company ByteDance to sell the popular video app TikTok or face a ban in the United States has been passed overwhelmingly in the House.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), which would protect Americans and prevent foreign adversaries like China from targeting, surveiling, and manipulating the American people through online applications such as TikTok, was passed by 352 to 65 votes on Wednesday.
The legislation needs the approval of the Senate and be signed by the President to become law.
The Bill requires Beijing-based Bytedance to divest TikTok and other applications it controls within 180 days after enactment of the bill, or those apps will be prohibited in the United States.
This prohibition can only be applied to applications controlled by a “foreign adversary,” which the bill defines as China, Russia Iran, and North Korea.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for surveiling American journalists.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing aboard Air Force One that this bill would not ban apps like TikTok.
“What it would do is to ensure that ownership of these apps wouldn’t be in the hands of those who can exploit them or to do us harm,” she told reporters.
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