CNN
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TikTok is once more dealing with an imminent risk from Congress.
On Wednesday, Home Republicans added a hot-button invoice that would result in a nationwide TikTok ban to a wide-ranging foreign aid package meant to assist Israel and Ukraine.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson goals to carry a vote on the help package deal as early as Saturday. If authorised, it may fast-track what has turn out to be probably the most critical danger to TikTok’s US enterprise since former President Donald Trump first proposed a ban of the favored app in 2020.
An earlier model of the TikTok invoice sailed through the House in March, but it surely has turn out to be slowed down within the Senate. By together with it within the assist package deal, Home Republicans hope to drive the Senate to a fast vote on a measure supporters say is necessary to protect People’ private knowledge from the Chinese language authorities.
Opponents, together with TikTok and a variety of civil society teams, have argued the invoice dangers violating TikTok customers’ First Amendment rights.
In pressuring Senate colleagues to approve the TikTok invoice alongside navy tools for Ukraine, Home Republicans are angling to keep away from the prolonged common course of that would delay a Senate vote on the app, which has 170 million US customers. President Joe Biden has mentioned he would signal the Home TikTok invoice if it reaches his desk.
The latest version of the TikTok bill incorporates some updates. For instance, it units out a nine-month timeframe for the app’s Chinese language dad or mum, ByteDance, to promote the social media firm. If it misses the deadline, TikTok could be banned from US app shops.
That proposed time restrict is longer than the roughly six months proposed in previous legislation. The brand new invoice would additionally give the president the choice to increase the deadline by one other 90 days if he determines there’s been progress towards a sale.
The adjustments seem aimed toward addressing issues by some senators that the unique six-month deadline was too brief. Whether or not the revisions are sufficient to achieve Senate approval, nonetheless, stays unclear, as some main senators have signaled wishes for a slower method to a TikTok invoice.
One key senator who was uncertain of the preliminary Home TikTok invoice appeared glad.
“I’m very blissful that Speaker Johnson and Home leaders included my suggestion to increase the ByteDance divestment interval from six months to a yr,” mentioned Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, in a press release. “As I’ve mentioned, extending the divestment interval is critical to make sure there’s sufficient time for a brand new purchaser to get a deal accomplished. I assist this up to date laws.”
For years, US policymakers have expressed fears that TikTok’s hyperlinks to China by way of its dad or mum firm may permit the Chinese language authorities unauthorized entry to TikTok’s US consumer knowledge. That info may doubtlessly assist the Chinese language authorities determine intelligence targets or facilitate disinformation campaigns, they’ve mentioned. Another international locations such as India have already banned TikTok.
TikTok has pushed again strongly towards these claims, saying there isn’t a proof the Chinese language authorities has accessed US consumer knowledge to this point and that the corporate has taken steps to insulate People’ private info. That features Undertaking Texas, an initiative that concerned transferring TikTok’s US consumer knowledge onto servers managed and overseen by Oracle, the US expertise large.
Some coverage consultants say a extra complete option to take care of TikTok’s potential nationwide safety dangers could be for Congress to go a nationwide privateness legislation that regulates how all companies and organizations can deal with People’ private info.
This month, Cantwell and her Republican counterpart within the Home, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, unveiled a proposal that would do exactly that, breaking a yearslong impasse over key points together with the scope and attain of a unified, nationwide knowledge privateness customary.