The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday, March 13, that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a ban, Reuter reported. It said the move is the greatest threat to the app since the Donald Trump administration.
The bill got overwhelming support, but it faces a more uncertain path in the Senate where some favor a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps posing security concerns, the report stated.
”This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it,” No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said on social media platform X.
TikTok is used by about 170 million Americans and its influence on the public, technology, and algorithm dominance has become a major issue in Washington DC. Lawmakers said their offices had received large volumes of calls from teenage TikTok users who oppose the legislation.
Lawmakers in the EU are worried too. On February 19, the European Union (EU) announced a formal investigation into TikTok for alleged breaches of its obligations to protect minors online, under a new law that polices digital content.
The EU’s concerns are with regards to TikTok’s age verification tools, which according to it, may not be reasonable, proportionate or effective, stated reports. Since Brussels rolled out the Digital Services Act (DSA), this is the second probe into a major online platform, with Elon Musk’s X (in December) being the first.
The EU is concerned that TikTok was not taking necessary measures or was not doing enough to address its negative impacts on the youth.
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