A couple days ago, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to either ban TikTok’s operations in the country or force a sale on the company.
The bill passed a 365 members of the house in support of the motion and 62 members voted against the motion. This means that a chunk number of the electorate would have the TikTok platform to be removed from their app stores and possible servers.
The bill to ban TikTok in the US was passed on the basis of national security concerns, knowing that the China communist government would be in control of the company and and of course its resources. Although, the CEO of TikTok, Mr. Chew denied the accusations that TikTok is being controlled by the Chinese government and as such could be a spying tool, he couldn’t convince the US government to think otherwise.
China has a history of cracking down on tech companies of other countries, censoring of politically sensitive information, and restricting her users from accessing western social media platforms. This is because they don’t want to let their resources out there and if par adventure taken hold by the enemy, then there’ll probably be in danger.
Speaking of ban, some countries have already banned the use of TikTok in their government houses. Such countries include Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Taiwan, the UK and EU governance bodies have all banned the app from government phones. In February, the EU opened a formal investigation into TikTok, but it will focus more on content, advertising, and the addictive app’s impact on minors.
The company has already been fined $370m by the EU for privacy violations.
And in the case of a total ban, Nepal and India have both banned TikTok. India’s ban is motivated by New Delhi’s ongoing geopolitical tensions with Beijing.
What happens to American citizens already using the platform for business.
According to reports, TikTok has about 170 million users from the US . Many others using the platform for business and others using it for pleasure. The US TikTok users have already amassed several hundreds and thousands of dollars off the platform and having them leave the platform now would be detrimental for their business. The US civil rights groups say it’s a violation of freedom to speak.
However, the US legislator says “ The government can’t impose this type of total ban unless it’s the only way to prevent extremely serious and immediate harm on national security.
The bill is expected to pass two more stages before it becomes law; the senate and the White House. However, the White House, represented by Joe Biden has already given his consent, saying that if the Senate approves it, he will also approve it.
The US general elections will be taking place in November this year, and this data concerns if not properly addressed can influence the outcome of elections like it did previously with the Cambridge analytica scandals
