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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Home Overseas Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday alongside occasion strains to present President Joe Biden the ability to ban Chinese language-owned TikTok, in what can be essentially the most far-reaching U.S. restriction on any social media app.

Lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app – which is utilized by over 100 million People – in addition to different apps thought of safety dangers.

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“TikTok is a nationwide safety menace … It’s time to act,” mentioned Consultant Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee who sponsored the invoice.

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“Anybody with TikTok downloaded on their machine has given the CCP (Communist Celebration of China) a backdoor to all their private data. It’s a spy balloon into their telephone.”

Democrats opposed the invoice, saying it was rushed and required due diligence by way of debate and session with specialists. The invoice doesn’t exactly specify how the ban would work, however offers Biden energy to ban any transactions with TikTok, which in flip might forestall anybody in the US from accessing or downloading the app on their telephones.

The invoice would additionally require Biden to impose a ban on any entity that “might” switch delicate private information to an entity topic to the affect of China.

TikTok has come underneath growing fireplace in current weeks over fears that consumer information might find yourself within the fingers of the Chinese language authorities, undermining Western safety pursuits.

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The White Home this week gave authorities companies 30 days to make sure that TikTok shouldn’t be on any federal units and methods. Greater than 30 U.S. states, Canada and European Union coverage establishments have additionally banned TikTok from being loaded onto state-owned units.

The destiny of the most recent measure remains to be unsure and faces important hurdles earlier than it may well turn out to be legislation. The invoice would have to be handed by the complete Home and U.S. Senate, which is managed by Democrats, earlier than it may well go to Biden.

“A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American tradition and values to the billion individuals who use our service worldwide,” a TikTok spokeswoman mentioned after the vote.

The Biden administration didn’t say whether or not it was in favor of shifting forward with the invoice or not, saying solely that it has beforehand raised considerations about apps like TikTok.

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“We’ll proceed to take a look at different actions that we are able to take, and embrace — that features how one can work with Congress on this subject additional,” mentioned White Home spokeswoman Olivia Dalton.

‘INSTINCT TO BAN’

Consultant Gregory Meeks, the highest Democrat on the committee, mentioned he strongly opposed the laws however understands considerations about TikTok.

“The Republican intuition to ban issues it fears, from books to speech, seems uninhibited,” Meeks mentioned, including the invoice would require the administration to sanction TikTok and different subsidiaries of TikTok’s dad or mum firm.

The U.S. authorities’s Committee on Overseas Funding in the US (CFIUS), a robust nationwide safety physique, in 2020 unanimously beneficial ByteDance divest TikTok due to fears that consumer information may very well be handed on to China’s authorities.

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TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for greater than two years on information safety necessities. TikTok mentioned it has spent greater than $1.5 billion on rigorous information safety efforts and rejects spying allegations. Meeks desires the talks to proceed.

Meeks mentioned the invoice is “dangerously” broad and would require U.S. sanctions on Korean and Taiwanese firms that provide Chinese language firms with semiconductor chips and different gear due to its broad restrictions on information transfers to China.

The American Civil Liberties Union referred to as on lawmakers to oppose the invoice, calling it “a critical violation of our First Modification rights.”

McCaul informed Reuters after the vote that he expects the invoice can be voted on by the Home this month.

TikTok Chief Government Shou Zi Chew is because of seem earlier than the U.S. Vitality and Commerce Committee on March 23 after assembly with lawmakers final month on Capitol Hill. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Enhancing by Deepa Babington)