TikTok's position in the United States is increasingly cornered and is in danger of being completely banned. The reason is, one of the most influential committees in the US Congress supports a bill that could block the video sharing platform.
The US Congressional Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation that could give President Joe Biden powers to block TikTok in the US as well as other apps owned by Chinese companies.
The panel approved the Deterring America's Technological Advances (DATA) bill by a vote of 24-16. All committee members representing Republicans gave their approval, while members of the Democratic Party opposed the bill.
If TikTok and other apps are caught sharing user data with individuals associated with the Chinese government, those apps will be banned. If that data is used to monitor, hack, or censor users, the US government can impose additional sanctions.
"TikTok is a national security threat ... the time has come to act," said Michael McCaul, the Republican congressman who chairs the committee.
"Anyone who has downloaded TikTok on their device has provided the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) with a backdoor for all their personal information. It's a spy balloon on their phone," McCaul added, referring to the case of Chinese spy balloons that have surfaced in the US. .
The US Democratic Party opposed the bill because it could affect the business of allied countries such as Europe and Taiwan. This bill is also called rush and requires consultation with experts.
TikTok of course condemned this bill. In posting on Twitter, the platform owned by ByteDance admitted that it was disappointed to see this regulation being passed in such a hurry.
"Blocking TikTok in the US is blocking the export of American culture and values to the billions of people who use our services around the world," TikTok said in its official statement.
"We are disappointed to see this rushed bill moving forward, despite its sizable negative impact on the free speech of the millions of Americans who use and love TikTok," he continued.
This bill still has to go through several more steps before it is passed as law. The US Congress and Senate must pass it, and after that President Biden must sign the bill.
The US government itself has started blocking TikTok on state-owned devices. Several US states, Canada and the European Union also prohibit their employees from installing TikTok on state-owned devices.