President Joe Biden said Friday that he would sign legislation sailing through Congress that could lead to TikTok getting banned in the U.S., according to USAToday.
"If they pass it, I'll sign it," Biden told reporters Friday.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously Thursday, 50-0, to advance a bill that would block the wildly popular app TikTok from U.S.-based web hosting services and app stores unless TikTok severs ties with its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, within 180 days.
The full House of Representatives will take up the legislation next.
TikTok, used by more than 170 million people in the U.S., has drawn scrutiny in Washington over concerns that the Chinese government could use the app to gain access to private user data or spread misinformation.
TikTok strongly opposes the bill, saying it would give ByteDance too narrow of a timeline to find a buyer with the resources to buy TikTok and to overcome the technical challenges involved in spinning it off. Angry TikTok users have flooded lawmakers with phone calls urging their opposition.
"This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it," TikTok said in an emailed statement. "This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs."
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