The House voted in favor of a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok after lawmakers raised concerns over data privacy and national security.
The 170 million TikTok users in the US are in jeopardy of losing their accounts after the House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban the app if China-based ByteDance doesn’t sell it.
The federal government has long been concerned about the national security risk TikTok could pose if sensitive data about US users is shared with the Chinese government.
So, how did we get here, and what exactly did the House vote on?
Let me break it down clearly.
The bill passed by a vote of 352-65. It’s unclear if the Senate will raise a vote on the bill, but the chamber did agree to review the legislation. President Joe Biden already agreed to sign the bill into law if Congress passes it, forcing ByteDance to sell the app in 165 days or see it banned from US app stores.
TikTok’s fate hangs in the balance, but we’ll continue to track the legislation’s movements and report them in Boardroom’s Tech Talk newsletter. Stay tuned.