The U.S. Congress has introduced a new bill that would require Beijing-based Byte Dance to divest its stake in TikTok, the international version of Douyin, a short-sharing platform subsidiary, or face the fate of being banned in the United States.
Lawmakers noted that both TikTok and ByteDance pose a risk to the United States by being controlled by foreign adversaries.
The bill, titled the "Act to Protect U.S. Apps from Foreign Adversary Control," explicitly lists Chinese electronics giants ByteDance and TikTok as apps controlled by foreign adversaries and poses a risk to the United States.
According to the bill, 180 days after the bill goes into effect, apps that are classified as controlled by foreign adversaries, including ByteDance and TikTok, will no longer be able to operate in the United States. At the same time, applications classified as controlled by foreign adversaries have 165 days to challenge them after the bill goes into effect.
If the bill goes into effect, TikTok will be removed from the U.S. mobile app store, and its company will have to stop the ** version of the service, unless TikTok can sever ties with its parent company, ByteDance.
The bill also gives new powers to designate specific social applications that are controlled by a foreign adversary and pose a risk.
Designated applications will be removed from U.S. mobile app stores, and their ** versions of the service will be discontinued, unless they can cut ties with entities controlled by foreign adversaries by divesting them from their ownership by means of shares.
The bill requires that a foreign adversary entity may not own more than 20% of the company's equity.
Congress has held several hearings over the past few years to focus on the threat posed by TikTok to the United States, and the introduction of this bill is also seen as the latest wave of congressional efforts to push for a ban on TikTok.
According to data released by the Pew Research Center in January, the number of TikTok users in the United States is still growing rapidly, with the number of adults using TikTok increasing by 12 percentage points between 2021 and 2023.