Tag Archives: TikTok

The Chinese Communist Party shared an ominous warning the same day U.S. lawmakers advanced a bill that could ban Chinese-owned TikTok nationwide.

The House passed the bill Wednesday morning in a bipartisan vote 352 – 65. 

The House China Select Committee says Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials through ByteDance are using TikTok to spy on its U.S. users’ locations and dictate its algorithm to conduct influence campaigns, making it a national security threat.

ByteDance would have five months after the law is signed to divest from TikTok. If it does not, app stores and web hosting platforms would not be allowed to distribute it in the U.S. 

Ahead of the vote, a spokesman for the CCP railed against the key claims made by Republican and Democrat lawmakers in their push to get the…

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill which would ban TikTok in the US if its owners don’t sell.

The bill would force the app’s owner ByteDance to sell its stake in the platform within six months or have the app be banned from US app stores and web hosting services.

It was introduced amid concerns over ByteDance’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The bill passed by a vote of 352-65, and will now go on to the Senate, according to the Associated Press.

TikTok currently has around 170 million users in the US.

Lawmakers in favour of the bill…

On Tuesday, billionaire tech executive and X owner Elon Musk raised concerns about a bill making its way through Congress that seeks to clamp down on U.S. access to social media applications such as Chinese-owned TikTok unless they sever ties with foreign adversaries that are deemed a national security threat.

Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist” who championed the “Twitter Files,” responded to a post from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) highlighting text from the legislation that addresses websites and businesses that provide services to social media platforms found to be in violation of proposed law.

“The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse. The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, not just Apps. The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S….

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is not a fan of a US bill that would ban TikTok if it doesn’t sever its ties to China.

“This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control!” Musk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, which he owns. “If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite ‘foreign control’ as the issue, but it does not.”

Musk was responding to assertions from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) that the TikTok bill is a “trojan horse” that gives the president the power to ban websites and targets US companies.

“The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, not just Apps,” Rep. Massie tweeted. “The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S. (or offshore) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE or App Store, not the ‘foreign adversary.'”

He points to…

“Break up with the Chinese Communist Party, or break up with the U.S.”

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board is out with a new piece on why Congress must pass H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which protects Americans from the national security threats posed by CCP-controlled TikTok. Check out excerpts and highlights below: 

The House on Wednesday is expected to vote on a bill that would give popular social-media app TikTok an ultimatum: Break up with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or break up with the U.S. It didn’t need to come to this, but Beijing and TikTok’s Chinese-owner ByteDance left Washington with no choice.

[…]

Donald Trump tried in 2020 to force ByteDance to divest TikTok, but his executive order was…