What’s up with the Tiktok Bill?

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban TikTok in the United States. Proponents of the legislation are worried that TikTok, and other applications owned by foreign adversaries, are a big risk to national security. This comes after the American intelligence community warned that TikTok influenced recent U.S. elections.  

How did TikTok do that?

TikTok has a whopping 170 million American users and is basically owned by a Chinese tech giant called ByteDance Ltd. 

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Head of the United States’ eighteen intelligence agencies “TikTok accounts by a [Chinese] propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.” 

Members in Congress are concerned that ByteDance has too much control over TikTok and would have access to user data if the Chinese government wants to use it.  

So, who's on which side?

The vote was 352-65, with one member voting present. 197 Republicans voted yes, and 15 said no. On the Democrat side, 155 were for it, and 50 against.  

Some Republicans believe that people should be warned about any privacy or propaganda issues with TikTok, but then left to decide for themselves. Democrats are worried about what banning TikTok would mean for folks in the U.S., especially small business owners.  

The bill now goes over to the Senate to be considered.