U.S. House panel approves bill giving Biden power to ban TikTok
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[March 02, 2023]
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on
Wednesday along party lines to give President Joe Biden the power to ban
Chinese-owned TikTok, in what would be the most far-reaching U.S.
restriction on any social media app.
Lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the
administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app - which is used
by over 100 million Americans - as well as other apps considered
security risks.
"TikTok is a national security threat ... It is time to act," said
Representative Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee who
sponsored the bill.
"Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP
(Communist Party of China) a backdoor to all their personal information.
It’s a spy balloon into their phone."
Democrats opposed the bill, saying it was rushed and required due
diligence through debate and consultation with experts. The bill does
not precisely specify how the ban would work, but gives Biden power to
ban any transactions with TikTok, which in turn could prevent anyone in
the United States from accessing or downloading the app on their phones.
The bill would also require Biden to impose a ban on any entity that
"may" transfer sensitive personal data to an entity subject to the
influence of China.
TikTok has come under increasing fire in recent weeks over fears that
user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government,
undermining Western security interests.
The White House this week gave government agencies 30 days to ensure
that TikTok is not on any federal devices and systems. More than 30 U.S.
states, Canada and European Union policy institutions have also banned
TikTok from being loaded onto state-owned devices.
The fate of the latest measure is still uncertain and faces significant
hurdles before it can become law. The bill would need to be passed by
the full House and U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, before
it can go to Biden.
"A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and
values to the billion people who use our service worldwide," a TikTok
spokeswoman said after the vote.
The Biden administration did not say whether it was in favor of moving
ahead with the bill or not, or answer if it believed Biden has the legal
authority now to ban TikTok.
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TikTok app logo is seen in this
illustration taken, August 22, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said "TikTok poses a
problem and an issue - and so we have concerns about that as it
relates to Americans' data."
'INSTINCT TO BAN'
Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee,
said he strongly opposed the legislation but understands concerns
about TikTok.
"The Republican instinct to ban things it fears, from books to
speech, appears uninhibited," Meeks said, adding the bill would
require the administration to sanction TikTok and other subsidiaries
of TikTok’s parent company.
The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United
States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020
unanimously recommended ByteDance divest TikTok because of fears
that user data could be passed on to China's government.
TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on
data security requirements. TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5
billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying
allegations. Meeks wants the talks to continue.
Meeks said the bill is "dangerously" broad and would require U.S.
sanctions on Korean and Taiwanese companies that supply Chinese
companies with semiconductor chips and other equipment because of
its broad restrictions on data transfers to China.
The American Civil Liberties Union called on lawmakers to oppose the
bill, calling it "a serious violation of our First Amendment
rights."
McCaul told Reuters after the vote that he expects the bill would be
voted on by the House this month.
TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S.
Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23 after meeting with
lawmakers last month on Capitol Hill.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Deepa Babington and
Stephen Coates)
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