Wednesday, the House will vote on a bipartisan bill that would require Chinese company ByteDance to sell the popular video app TikTok or face a ban in the United States.
Two pieces of legislation to protect American data and national security from foreign adversaries are up for the House’s consideration.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521) would protect Americans and prevent foreign adversaries like China from targeting, surveilling, and manipulating the American people through online applications such as TikTok.
If passed, 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.
The Biden administration and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson have both signaled support for H.R. 7521, while former President and potential GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is opposed to it.
The second Bill, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (H.R. 7520), limits how data brokers share American’s sensitive information abroad.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for surveilling American journalists.
In March last year, the CEO of TikTok testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to answer for the threat his company poses to the U.S. national security.
“While TikTok may be the most well-known application subject to the Chinese Communist Party, it is certainly not the only one — others, like Lemon8 and Capcut, are also subject to the CCP’s influence through ByteDance,” says House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
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