US Congressman Demands ByteDance Stripping TikTok

Recently, bipartisan members of the US Congress have introduced a new bill prohibiting applications controlled and influenced by foreign opponents from operating in the United States. These include ByteDance and TikTok, which requires China ByteDance to divest its short video sharing platform subsidiary TikTok, namely Tiktok International, or TikTok will be banned in the United States. The bill lists China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as US rivals, but only ByteDance and TikTok are clearly named in the bill.

U.S. lawmakers pointed out that TikTok and ByteDance are controlled by China and pose a risk to U.S. national security. According to the content of the Act, applications listed as controlled by foreign rivals, including ByteDance and TikTok, will not continue to operate in the United States 180 days after the Act takes effect. US lawmakers believe that these applications enable opponents to monitor and influence Americans through relevant data and shared and used information. If the bill comes into force, TikTok will be removed from the U.S. mobile app store, and its company must also stop the website version of the service, unless TikTok can cut off its relationship with its parent company, ByteDance, and the bill requires that the foreign counterpart entities should not own more than 20% of the company's equity.

"Cut off contact with the Chinese government, otherwise you will lose your American users. The biggest opponent of the United States cannot control the media platforms dominated by the United States. TikTok's time in the United States has come to an end," said Gallagher, Chairman of the House China Special Committee, in a statement.

Democratic lawmakers said that as long as (TikTok) belongs to ByteDance, it must cooperate with the Chinese government. TikTok poses a major threat to our national security. We will protect American social media users and ensure that Americans are free from digital surveillance by cutting off the connection with software controlled by foreign rivals. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing this Thursday on legislation to protect American data and national security, to hear bipartisan lawmakers propose solutions to the national security posed by TikTok, and will discuss the bill.

In response to this bill, TikTok issued a statement stating, "This legislation will trample on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of the platforms they rely on for development and job creation."

Both houses of Congress have been attempting to propose multiple legislation to restrict or prohibit TikTok from operating in the United States, but there has been no progress on these bills so far. Last year, a group of bipartisan senators also proposed a bill that, although not explicitly limiting TikTok's operations in the United States, required the Department of Commerce to establish a process to identify which applications pose a threat to US national security and prohibit them.

According to data, the number of TikTok users in the United States has grown rapidly, with the number of adults using TikTok increasing by 12 percentage points between 2021 and 2023. Last month, Democratic President Joe Biden joined TikTok in his re-election campaign. Former US President Trump attempted to ban TikTok in 2020, but was blocked by US courts. TikTok, as a globally popular short video application, has a huge user base and extensive influence. This makes it play an important role in information dissemination, cultural exchange, and other aspects. However, it is precisely this influence that has raised concerns in the United States that TikTok may be used to spread harmful information and even threaten its national security. TikTok has always strictly followed local laws and regulations, and is willing to engage in dialogue and communication with the US government to seek the best way to solve problems. The United States is undoubtedly being guilty and infringing on the freedom of speech rights of American users.