WASHINGTON.- The Senate on Tuesday passed a law that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under threat of a ban. The controversial move by US lawmakers is expected to face legal challenges and harm content creators who rely on the app for income.
The TikTok law was included in a broader $95 billion package providing aid to Ukraine and Israel, which was approved by a vote of 79 to 18. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who said in a statement that he will sign the package on Wednesday.
House Republicans decided last week to include the TikTok bill in the foreign aid package to speed its passage in Congress, following negotiations with the Senate, where an earlier version of the bill had stalled. That version gave ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, six months to divest its stake in the platform. But it raised skepticism from some key lawmakers, concerned about the short timeline for a complex operation that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.
The revised legislation extends the deadline, giving ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok, and a possible three-month extension if the sale is underway. The bill would also prohibit the company from controlling TikTok’s secret sauce: the algorithm that feeds users videos based on their interests and that has turned the platform into a trend-setting phenomenon.
TikTok has not yet responded to a request for comment made Tuesday night.
The passage of the legislation is the culmination of long-held bipartisan fears in Washington about Chinese threats and ownership of TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans.. For years, lawmakers and government officials have expressed concern that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over American users’ data, or influence them by removing or promoting certain content on TikTok.
“Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other company specifically,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, malicious operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our soldiers and our U.S. government personnel.”
Opponents of the bill say the Chinese government could easily obtain information about Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that traffic in personal information. The foreign aid package includes a provision prohibiting data brokers from selling or renting “sensitive personally identifiable data” to North Korea, China, Russia, Iran or entities in those countries.
However, it has received some criticism, including from the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the language is too broad and could cover journalists and others who publish personal information.
Source: With information from AP
