A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday to give China's ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban, seeking to tackle national security concerns about its Chinese ownership.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesA bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday to give China's ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban, seeking to tackle national security concerns about its Chinese ownership.
The bill is the first significant legislative move in nearly a year toward banning or forcing ByteDance to divest the popular app, after senate legislation to ban it stalled in Congress last year in the face of heavy lobbying by TikTok.
The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok, which is used by more than 170 million Americans, or make it unlawful for app stores run by Apple , Google and others to offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to apps controlled by ByteDance.
"This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it," a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Persons:
ByteDance, Mike Gallagher, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Gallagher, Biden, TikTok, Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Organizations:
Representatives, Chinese Communist Party, Apple, Google, National Security, American Civil Liberties Union, Energy, Commerce
Locations:
U.S, China, United States, TikTok