House Panel Okays Bill Allowing Biden To Ban TikTok

Legislation that would give US President Joe Biden the power to ban the Chinese-owned video app TikTok advanced in Congress, a setback for the app as it tries to prove that it does not pose a security threat, the South China Morning Post reported.

Photo Insert: CFIUS, the inter-agency body, which includes input from the departments of the Treasury, Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security, is trying to determine whether Beijing can gain access to TikTok user personal data, thereby undermining national security interests.

Representatives on the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 24 to 16, along party lines, to approve the measure to give the White House new powers to ban the app - which is used by more than 100 million Americans - in addition to other apps considered security risks.

Democrats opposed the bill, which was sponsored by the committee's chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, arguing that Congress should not get in the way of a pending review of TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Known as CFIUS, the inter-agency body, which includes input from the departments of the Treasury, Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security, is trying to determine whether Beijing can gain access to TikTok user personal data, thereby undermining national security interests.

TikTok and its Chinese owner, ByteDance, are the only companies specified, but the bill also targets any connected software application owner that "is subject to the jurisdiction or direction of, or directly or indirectly operating on behalf of China, or is owned by, directly or indirectly controlled by, or otherwise subject to the influence of China."

The bill cites an assessment by FBI Director Christopher Wray last year that ByteDance "is controlled by the Chinese government."

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