On March 13, the House of Representatives passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S.
The House voted 352 to 65, with 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voting in opposition. It is uncertain what the Senate’s decision will be, but President Biden stated he will sign it if it passes Congress.
The bill states that TikTok must find a U.S. buyer within six months or it will face a ban in the U.S.
TikTok is currently owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, located in Beijing, U.S. lawmakers who support the bill claim that TikTok poses a threat to national security since ByteDance could transfer U.S. citizens’ information to the Chinese government.
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated on March 14 in CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he is interested in buying TikTok and is putting a group together to achieve this.
Many TikTok content creators worry about this ban since it would negatively affect many small businesses based on TikTok.
If the bill were to be passed, TikTok would be removed from all app stores and would be inaccessible on U.S. internet browsers.