President Biden will support a ban on TikTok if the bill passes through the House and Senate
President Joe Biden
President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he would sign the bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would federally the China-based social media app TikTok.
Biden was asked on Friday, the day after his State of the Union address, if he would sign a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok if its China-based parent company ByteDance does not divest its stake in the social media platform.
“If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” Biden said.
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Biden’s comments came after the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, introduced by Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., passed unanimously in a bipartisan committee.
“This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” Gallagher said in a press release. “America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.”
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ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, will have to fully divest its applications within 180 days, or risk a ban on those apps if the bill is passed. Furthermore, the bill also establishes a process for the executive branch to ban applications in the future if they are deemed a security risk.
In addition, designated social media apps will be required to provide users with a copy of their data in a format that can be imported into another app when they leave the platform.
TikTok: a concern for national security
According to Rep. Krishnamoorthi, the bill’s objective is to “protect” American users from digital surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “So long as TikTok is owned by ByteDance and required to collaborate with the CCP, it poses critical threats to our national security,” Krishnamoorthi explained. “Our bipartisan legislation aims to protect American social media users by driving the divestment of foreign adversary-controlled apps, ensuring that Americans are shielded from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them.”
TikTok’s importance and potential impacts
TikTok boasts over 170 million users in the U.S., but concerns have been mounting over the ties between ByteDance and the CCP. Critics worry that the platform could serve as a propaganda outlet for the CCP and have a negative impact on users’ mental health by surfacing addictive or harmful content in their feeds.
In response to the bill, a TikTok spokesperson emphasized that this legislation essentially amounts to an outright ban of TikTok, violating the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and impacting 5 million small businesses that rely on the platform for growth and job creation. TikTok has previously denied sharing user data with the CCP.
Fox News’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.
