House lawmakers are moving with dizzying speed with a plan that could ban TikTok from the United States. In the span of two days this week, a key House committee introduced and approved a bill targeting TikTok. The full House is set to vote on it as early as next week, and the White House says President Joe Biden is prepared to sign it.
But could a TikTok ban really happen? And what makes this proposal different from the other times policymakers have tried to clamp down on the video-sharing app used by 170 million Americans?
Here's everything you need to know about the hot-button legislation:
If enacted, the bill would give TikTok roughly five months to separate from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance, or else app stores in the United States would be prohibited from hosting the app on their platforms.
It doesn't stop there. The bill lays out similar restrictions for any app allegedly controlled by foreign adversaries, such as China, Iran, Russia or North Korea. And it sets up a process for Biden – or any future president – to identify apps that should be banned under the legislation.
App stores that violate the legislation could be fined based on the number of users of a banned app. The bill establishes fines of $5,000 per user of a banned app. So in the case of TikTok, Apple and Google could potentially be on the hook for up to $850 billion in fines each.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to advance the bill on Thursday.
What is TikTok saying?
TikTok is calling the legislation an attack on the First Amendment rights of its users. It launched a call-to-action campaign within its app, urging users to call their representatives in Washington to oppose the bill. Multiple congressional offices say they've been flooded with calls.
"The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression," TikTok said in a statement. "This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country."
Why are lawmakers cracking down on TikTok?
They allege TikTok poses a national security threat because the Chinese government could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance, forcing it to hand over the data of U.S. TikTok users.
Policymakers worry that that information could then be used to identify intelligence targets or enable disinformation or propaganda campaigns.
So far, the U.S. government has not publicly presented any evidence that China has accessed TikTok user data, and cybersecurity experts say it remains a hypothetical – albeit seriously troubling – scenario.
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