By The Financial District
Mar 71 min
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has filed legislation to give China's ByteDance about six months to divest the popular short video app TikTok or face a US ban, as reported by David Shepardson and Michael Martina for Reuters.
The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok 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. I Photo: ByteDance
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.
Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives' select China committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat, are among more than a dozen lawmakers introducing the measure, which is expected to see an initial vote soon.
"This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users," Gallagher said.
"America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the US."
The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok 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. The app is used by more than 170 million Americans.