ALBAWABA – The US House of Representatives is set to vote later Wednesday on a bill that would result in the ban of Chinese video sharing app TikTok, unless it severs ties with parent company ByteDance, with Beijing warning that a ban would “inevitably come back to bite the United States” as reported by AFP.
When ByteDance released TikTok in 2017, the app became viral, amassing over a billion users in a span of four years, however concerning governments and security authorities over its possible Chinese ownership, government involvement and Beijing Communist Party subordination.
As the vote looms closer, Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, denounced the anticipated ban, saying “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” warning further that “In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself.”
Wenbin also added that “This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies' normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin gestures during a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing (Photo by Noel Celis / AFP)
From TikTok’s side of the table, CEO Shou Zi Chew is currently in Washington in hopes to ramp up support for his company, with Bloomberg reporting that TikTok plans to pursue all legal avenues before contemplating a divestment from ByteDance Ltd. if the proposed bill is passed into law.
While the bill titled “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” is expected to pass the congress, the position of the Senate appears unclear so far, with the White House earlier stating that president Joe Biden is willing to sign the bill into law if it arrives at his desk.
