Devotees of TikTok cheer their support before the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell it within six months (Picture: AP)
The US has moved another step closer to banning TikTok, despite ex-President Donald Trump flipping from supporting to opposing a shutdown.
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives on a 352-65 vote on Wednesday passed legislation that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform within six months or face a nationwide ban.
Among House Republicans, only 15 voted against the ban as Trump recently called for, while 197 voted for it.
While president, Trump supported efforts to ban the app, but in Truth Social post last week flip-flopped to opposing potentially prohibiting it. Trump argued that Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg whom he called an ‘Enemy of the People’ would benefit from shutting out TikTok.
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Donald Trump supported a TikTok ban while president, but last week said he opposes a potential shutting out of the app (Picture: Getty Images)
On Monday, Trump acknowledged that he was for banning TikTok in the past, but that ‘Facebook has been very bad for our country’. He added that it was a ‘tough decision’.
‘There’s, you know, a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok,’ said Trump.
Lawmakers who voted for the bill say that TikTok is threat to national security because the Chinese government could potentially force ByteDance to share data from the platform’s 170million American users.
The measure was passed in a rare bipartisan and unanimous vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.
Lawmakers contend TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok’s consumers in the US (Picture: AP)
President Joe Biden has said he would sign the legislation if it reaches his desk.
On Wednesday, TikTok launched another campaign encouraging its users to phone lawmakers to oppose the bill, and several congressional offices have been flooded with calls.
Following the House vote, Ed East, who is CEO and co-founder of the global influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy, stated that a ban ‘would of course be a huge loss for brands and creators who operate predominantly on the platform’.
‘For those creators, we would advise building or growing a presence across multiple platforms,’ said East. ‘Not just to protect against the impact of any potential bans or strict regulation on individual platforms, but also to diversify audiences and output.’
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