The US House of Representatives challenges China with the threat to ban TikTok

The House of Representatives ordered this Wednesday to stop TikTok dancing in the United States if ByteDance, the company that owns the Chinese video social network, does not agree to sell it. The approval of a bill that could end up prohibiting the distribution of the application obtained overwhelming support in a vote with 352 votes in favor and 65 against (15 Republicans and 50 Democrats).

The US Congress’ challenge to China is part of the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the control of technology and fears that the platform could threaten national security and be used for espionage operations or manipulation of public opinion. . China, through the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, has warned that a ban on the social network would be taken as an “act of bullying.”

The fate of the law voted this Wednesday by fast track and with hardly any debate in the House of Representatives is uncertain. It will have to be approved in the Senate, where a qualified majority of 60 out of 100 is necessary, and previous initiatives to stop TikTok failed to move forward. Such a resounding vote in the House of Representatives, however, increases the pressure on senators to support a measure that is certainly unpopular among the 170 million American users of the platform (more than half of the country) and that provokes great rejection among Young.

The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has not yet committed to promoting a vote and several legislators have already warned that they want to hold hearings on the issue before making a decision. They have also expressed concern that the ban represents an attack on the first amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.

“Apps like TikTok allow the Chinese Communist Party to send harmful content to our young people and collect location data, purchasing habits, contacts, and other sensitive information and data from Americans. “Today’s bipartisan vote demonstrates the House’s opposition to Communist China’s attempts at espionage and manipulation, and signals our determination to deter our enemies,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “I urge the Senate to pass this bill and send it to the president so he can sign it into law,” he added.

Biden, willing to sign it

Joe Biden has warned that if he receives this rule, he will not exercise his presidential power to veto it, and will sign it, although that could take its toll on young voters in the November elections. Curiously, his campaign has been working to increase the penetration of his messages and his image on the social network, with a view to re-election.

If all the procedures are completed, ByteDance would have six months to sell TikTok. If not, the video platform would finally be banned. Congressmen received classified information on Tuesday in a closed-door session about the risks it represents to national security. And they fear that China will exercise its prerogative to force ByteDance to share TikTok user data, and that this will be used to identify sensitive intelligence targets or to mount disinformation campaigns, which could influence the polls. At a Senate hearing Monday, FBI Director Christopher Wray and the CIA’s Avril Haines agreed that those threats were “real.”

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, for his part, asked on Tuesday: “Do we want TikTok to be owned by an American company or a Chinese company? We want [tener control sobre] TikTok data, children’s data, adult data? Should they stay here in the United States or should they destroy China? “That is the fundamental issue being debated here and the president is clear about his position,” he said.

Attempts to curb TikTok in the United States date back to the Donald Trump Administration, which used several executive orders to try to force app stores not to offer it and thus force ByteDance to spin off the company’s business in this country. The initiative, prevented in the courts, did not go ahead, but forced negotiations, still open, between Washington and the social network, which partially gave in to pressure and agreed to store the data of American users on servers controlled by the technology giant Oracle. .

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, this Wednesday, after the vote on TikTok.SHAWN THEW (EFE)

Trump gave the impression on Monday that he had changed his mind, when he asked his party representatives to vote against this Wednesday. He said that the disappearance of TikTok “will drive young people crazy,” and warned that this would help the competitor Meta, owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, which the former president defined as “the enemy of the people.” Despite his strong influence on the conservative formation, that request has had no effect.

After learning of this Wednesday’s vote, TikTok released a statement in which it considers the measure an attack on freedom of expression in the United States and criticizes that the processing of the law was done behind closed doors and on a fast track basis. “We are hopeful that the Senate will take into account all the facts, listen to its constituents and realize the impact on the economy, on seven million small businesses and on the 170 million Americans who use our service,” he says the notice.

The use of TikTok has been restricted on the phones and tablets of administration officials in several countries, who cited concern for national security. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada and New Zealand have adopted similar measures. Nor can it be downloaded by employees of the European Commission and Council and NATO.

The very idea that the enormously popular video platform could disappear caused many Americans to call their representatives in recent days to try to convince them of the importance in their lives of TikTok, a social network where they connect with other users, They inform themselves, they entertain themselves, they do business and it has also become the way of life for those thousands of users who call themselves “content creators.” Legislators also received pressure before the vote through the social video network itself.

The Capitol is not the only open front for TikTok in the United States, where it has a pending lawsuit with the most powerful multinational record company, Universal Music, owner of a third of the world’s music, over copyright and company policy. China with the use of artificial intelligence. Universal has withdrawn its repertoire from the platform, despite the fact that it has become an indispensable tool for promoting hits, especially among the youngest.

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