NEWSLETTER
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -TikTok on Sunday reiterated its free speech concerns over a bill passed by the House of Representatives that would ban the popular social media app in the United States if Chinese owner ByteDance did not sell its stake by the deadline. of one year.
The House approved the legislation on Saturday by a margin of 360 to 58. It now goes to the Senate, where it could come up for a vote in the coming days. President Joe Biden previously said he would sign the TikTok legislation.
Many US lawmakers from the Republican and Democratic parties and the Biden administration say TikTok poses national security risks because China could force the company to share the data of its 170 million US users.
The move to include TikTok in a broader foreign aid package may accelerate the timeline for a potential ban after an earlier separate bill stalled in the Senate.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian aid to once again stymie a ban bill that would trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a statement.
In February, TikTok criticized the original bill that ultimately stalled in the Senate, saying it would “censor millions of Americans.” Similarly, he had argued that Montana's state ban on TikTok passed last year constituted a violation of the First Amendment.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the House bill on free speech grounds.
TikTok insists it has never shared US data and never would.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that TikTok could be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government, noting that “many young people” use TikTok to get news.
“The idea that we would give the Communist Party this propaganda tool, as well as the ability to extract personal data from 170 million Americans, is a national security risk,” he told CBS News.
Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute, a free speech group, said the latest bill had “no real benefit” because China and other U.S. rivals could still buy Americans' data at intermediaries in the open market and engage in disinformation campaigns using US-based social media platforms.
Some Democrats have also raised free speech concerns over a ban and instead called for stricter data privacy legislation.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told ABC News on Sunday that he felt a TikTok ban might not survive legal scrutiny in the courts, citing the Constitution's free speech protections.
The House voted on March 13 to give ByteDance about six months to divest TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban.
The legislation approved Saturday provides a nine-month deadline that could be extended by three months if the president determined progress toward a sale.
Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, expressed support for the latest bill. She had previously asked the House to review some details of the March 13 bill.
TikTok was also the topic of conversation in a call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month. Biden expressed concerns about his ownership of the app.
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