The United States is deciding to close TikTok!

News Desk : The House Foreign Affairs Committee is planning to vote on a bill next month to stop the use of the popular Chinese social media platform TikTok in the United States.  

The plan by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the panel's chairman, would give the White House legal tools to ban TikTok over US national security concerns. 

The concern is that the Chinese government is trying to monitor us using the app, McCaul told Bloomberg News.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump tried to prevent new users from downloading TikTok. Even tried to stop the use of the application in the US.

But in June 2021, the Biden administration officially abandoned the effort. Then in December, Republican Senator Marco Rubio unveiled bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok. Its purpose was to stop any social media use influenced by China and Russia.

But Congress faces hurdles if it wants to ban the short video sharing app, owned by ByteDance and popular among teenagers. Because this will require at least 60 votes in the Senate.

For three years, TikTok has assured Washington that it will not access the personal information of US citizens and that it cannot be used by the Chinese Communist Party or anyone else under Beijing's influence.

White House press secretary Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the bill on Friday. "It's under review by CFIUS, so I don't want to elaborate on that," Jeanpierre said. 

Last month, Biden signed a law that included a ban on federal employees using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices. More than 25 US states have banned the use of TikTok on state-owned devices.

 

Comments (0)