U.S. lawmakers from both parties have once again demanded that ByteDance divest TikTok. On March 5, Eastern time, members of both parties in the U.S. Congress proposed a new bill to require ByteDance to divest control of its short ** app TikTok, and require it to be completed within 165 days, otherwise TikTok will face the risk of being banned. TikTok responded to this, saying: "No matter how the proponents try to cover it up, this bill is an outright TikTok ban." This legislation will trample on 1The First Amendment rights of 700 million Americans deprive the 5 million small businesses on the platform of the opportunity to grow and create jobs. ”It is understood that the bill was proposed by a total of 19 lawmakers led by Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the chief Democratic member of the committee. The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to proceed with the divestiture or TikTok would be removed from U.S. app stores, while also cessating web hosting services that would be inaccessible**.
In addition, the bill gives new powers to take action, such as bans or restrictions, against social apps controlled by companies headquartered or registered in certain countries. If such applications are to avoid being banned, the law requires that foreign adversary entities must not own more than 20% of the company's equity unless they can be severed from entities controlled by foreign adversaries through means such as **shares.
Xinhua**.
In the past few years, the ban on TikTok and other related issues have frequently become the focus of attention in the US Congress, and hearings have been held on the grounds that they pose a threat to the United States. The most concerned is that in March last year, TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi attended a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee to accept questions from U.S. lawmakers on TikTok user privacy, data security, and the safety of minors. In his written testimony, he stressed that the platform will protect U.S. user data through a firewall against unauthorized foreign access; TikTok is still a platform that can be freely expressed and will not be manipulated by any **. The introduction of the bill is seen as the latest effort and attempt by Congress to push for a ban.
In response to the United States' previous request to ByteDance to ban its TikTok shares otherwise the APP, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce has said that ignoring the products and services themselves and only starting from the identity of foreign investors, mandatory TikTok will seriously damage the confidence of investors from all over the world, including China, to invest in the United States. If the news is true, China will resolutely oppose ** or divestment of TikTok. When it comes to technology exports, the administrative licensing procedures must be carried out in accordance with China's laws and regulations, and China will make a decision in accordance with the law.
In addition, the spokesperson also said: "We have always maintained that data security should not become a tool for individual countries to generalize the concept, abuse state power, and unreasonably suppress enterprises in other countries, and the United States has so far failed to produce evidence to prove that TikTok threatens the United States The United States should stop spreading false information on data security issues, stop unreasonably suppressing relevant enterprises, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises from all countries to invest and operate in the United States." ”
At present, TikTok is one of the most popular apps among young people in the United States, and just last month, Biden's re-election campaign team in the United States has registered an account on TikTok and released the first TikTok including a Q&A session, which has received more than 10 million traffic. However, the TikTok app is still banned from being used on ** devices, and at present, there are still several states in the United States that completely or partially ban the use of TikTok on ** devices.
It is reported that the House Energy and Commerce Committee said it would consider the latest bill on Thursday.
Written by: Nandu reporter Xu Bingqian.