The United States House voted 352-65 Wednesday to send the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” on to the Senate. The legislation requires Communist China run company ByteDance to divest TikTok within six months in order for the app “to remain available in the United States. U.S. intelligence says TikTok has been engaged in a 2 prong attack against Americans. The first is to spread propaganda to divide the country. E.g. 85% of pro Palestine, anti Israel videos on the app that were uploaded between October 2023 and January 2024 were created by the communist government and promoted to high school college students as a way to turn them against their government. The 2nd prong which is of more concern is the access Americans sign over to the Communist government when they accept the upload of the app to their phones.
The overwhelming majority vote followed the 50-0 approval the bill received in the Energy and Commerce Committee, but while it received a lot of support in the House, the same warm reception isn’t necessarily waiting for it in the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hasn’t commented on the bill’s future there, simply saying in a short statement after its passage by the House that the Senate “will review the legislation when it comes over from the House.” Sen. Dick Durbin said yesterday, “Cutting out a large group of young voters is not the best-known strategy for re-election.”
TikTok distributed signs and brought protesters to the U.S. Capitol to encourage lawmakers to not pass this bill. Several Democrats and Republicans said they felt like a ban on TikTok would place a limit on free speech. That people and companies have the right to spread and promote lies if they like. Others countered U.S. companies and people have that protection, but foreign governments do not.
If the bill passes in the Senate, President Biden has already signaled that he’ll sign it into law.
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