Will TikTok start to wave goodbye to its American users?

The US House of Representatives passed early Thursday morning (Philippine time) the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a bill that will force TikTok to stop its operations in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells its controlling stake.

After its passage in Congress, the bill will be deliberated in the Senate, and if it gets the Senate’s approval, it will be sent to US President Joe Biden for signing. Biden said five days prior, on 9 March, that “he would immediately sign” the bill once it reached his office.

“Communist China is America’s largest geopolitical foe and is using technology to undermine American security actively,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement after the House voting.

Once the current bill gets signed, it would force foreign-owned social media companies to sell their shares or face a ban in the US if the country’s intelligence sees the application as a threat.

ByteDance, the parent company of the fast-growing Chinese short-form video service, will need approval from its Beijing officials to proceed with the divestiture. 

The country’s representatives, especially those who co-authored the bill, decried that the video application collects data from its 170 million American users, which could lead to the seeping of Chinese propaganda.

In response to the House voting, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew released a video in the app talking about the possible harmful effects of the bill.

“Over the last few years, we have invested to keep your data safe and our platform free from outside manipulation.”

Chew also warned about the more significant expenses that content creators may pay, saying, “It will also take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses.”

The CEO of TikTok has been repeatedly criticized by US Senator Tom Cotton about his possible affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party despite Chew repeatedly saying that he is a Singaporean citizen.

In a video uploaded by Daily Mail, TikTok content creator JT Laybourne emphasized that the American people’s livelihood relies on video content applications. “This app is so much more than just an app for dumb TikTok dances; 170 million people rely on it for more than just their livelihood,” he said.

US political analysts also see that the passage of the bill in Congress could cause deeper political rifts between the two powerful nations.