New Bill Passed to Ban TikTok in the US: What You Need to Know

Jakarta –

DPR United States of America (US) passed a bill regarding the ban TikTok in that country unless the app is taken away from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The rule that TikTok is banned in the US will be demolished soon.

Reported by the foreign news agency, Deutsche Welle (DW), on Monday (22/4/2024), the bill was adopted with 360 votes in favor, and only 58 votes against. The bill will go to the Senate for a vote next week.

With a large user base and popularity among the youth, TikTok criticized the bill, which is part of a wider policy to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

TikTok warned that if approved, the law would “trash the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, destroy 7 million businesses, and shut down a platform that generates $24 billion (Rp. 388.98 trillion) to the US economy, every year.”

US President Joe Biden said he would approve the legislation if it was given to him.

What is regulated in the bill?

The bill gives Chinese owner ByteDance nine months to sell its stake, with the possibility of a three-month extension if the sale goes ahead. The parent company would also be prohibited from controlling TikTok’s algorithm, which feeds users videos based on their needs.

Steven Mnuchin, who was the US treasury secretary under former Donald Trump, said he was interested in acquiring the app and had assembled a group of investors.

This latest bill is a review of the bill previously approved by the US House of Representatives in March, which forced ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months. However, some elders are concerned that six months is too short a date.

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(fas/maa)