The House of Representatives unveils bipartisan bill to ban TikTok

 A new bill that aims to ban Tik-Tok, unless it breaks off from its Chinese-based parent company, was unveiled by bipartisan House lawmakers on March 5, the Hill reports.

The bill would force ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, to divest the shortform video app or face a ban of the platform in the U.S.

Introduced by Reps. Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” specifically defines ByteDance and TikTok as a foreign adversary controlled application.

The bill also creates a broader framework that would allow the president to designate other foreign adversary controlled applications. 

Foreign adversaries under the scope of the bill include China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.  

According to the Hill, the bill would give ByteDance more than five months after the law would go into effect to divest TikTok. If the company does not divest from TikTok, it would become illegal to distribute it through an app store or web hosting platform in the U.S., effectively banning it even among current users.  

The bill will be considered at Thursday markup in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 

TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said the legislation is an “outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it.”