The Upper House voted tonight by a large majority on the regulations promoted by Republicans and with support from Democrats to force the Chinese-owned company to divest in the country and move forward with the sale of the short video platform to other owners. The app is currently used by 170 million Americans.
The legislation was approved by 79 votes in favor and 18 againstwithin a broad package that contains assistance to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. Although it must still be signed by Biden, the president announced tonight, minutes after the vote, that this Wednesday he will turn the project into law.
Once signed, the regulations give the company ByteDance a period of nine months to get rid of TikTok. If you fail to do so within that time, you will have an extension of another three months. If the sale fails, the platform will be banned.
The US seeks to ban TikTok if ByteDance does not sell its stake
The legislators that promoted the restriction expressed their worry regarding the possibility of the company being a vehicle for the government of China obtains sensitive information from American users, something that since TikTok They denied it on multiple occasions.
According to the Washington Post, the company that owns the platform is expected to challenge the measure before the United States Courtsstarting a legal battle.
The Democrat Mark Warner, president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed out that when promoting the legislation they took into account that the platform is used by 170 million Americans, particularly young people, who would not like its closure.
“To those young Americans, I want to say that we hear your concern and we hope that TikTok continues under new ownership – American or not – from the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil or France.”he said and added: “It just needs to stop being controlled by an adversary.”
The US approved a new military aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan
In parallel, the Congress of USA approved a sweeping foreign aid package late Tuesday after months of delay, clearing the way for new funding for Ukraine amid progress in the Russian invasion and a shortage of military supplies from kyiv.
In addition to the project on TikTok, Three more were sanctioned from the House of Representatives on Saturday, after House Republican leaders changed course and allow a vote on $95 billion in aid, mainly military, for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific.
The largest of them allocates $61 billion to Ukraine. The second, 26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid to civilians in conflict zones around the world, and the third 8.12 billion to “counter communist China” in the Indo-Pacific.
Source: Ambito
