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House approves bill on TikTok that would force sale or effectively ban company

WASHINGTON – The House approved a bill Wednesday that would force TikTok’s parent company to sell the juggernaut social media app or face a practical ban in the U.S.

President Joe Biden has said he would sign it if it makes it to his desk, but the legislation’s fate is uncertain in the Senate, where the bill has proved much more divisive. The bill cleared the House with strong bipartisan support, 352 to 65, with one member voting present.

The legislation’s proponents argue the app, immensely popular with teens and young people for its customized song and dance features on short clip videos, poses national security risks. TikTok's parent company ByteDance, is based in Beijing and may expose American user data to Chinese government surveillance.

The FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that the company could share sweeping user data, including browsing history, location and other identifiers, with Chinese authorities.

For its part, TikTok says it stores all American user data in a U.S.-based entity, and the storage is solely managed by the company’s U.S.-based security. Their efforts, however, have done little to alleviate lawmaker concerns.

The Biden administration last year called on federal agencies to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices. Congress, the White House and the U.S. armed forces had already banned TikTok from the devices.

TikTok launched an intense lobbying campaign ahead of the House vote, urging its users to call their representatives and urge them to vote against the bill. The company’s CEO Shou Chew also visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to persuade lawmakers – mainly senators – to oppose it.

Former President Donald Trump waded into the debate as well, coming out against the bill and posting on Truth Social, his social media app, “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The bill was fast-tracked to the House floor after it was approved by the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee last week by a unanimous vote of 50-0, a stunning, unusual sight for the lower chamber.

Saw Vivek today on Crowder, he states it is not specifically a TIK TOK issue and should be a blanket policy of supplying personal data and data mining to the Chicoms.
Seems we are being a bit myoptic.
Plenty of other companies US and other that are feeding the Chicom beast.
We apparently are not thinking this through.

What do BLM, Bud Light and TikTok have in common?

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Saw Vivek today on Crowder, he states it is not specifically a TIK TOK issue and should be a blanket policy of supplying personal data and data mining to the Chicoms.
Seems we are being a bit myoptic.
Plenty of other companies US and other that are feeding the Chicom beast.
We apparently are not thinking this through.

"But Officer, other people are speeding too" never got anyone out of a ticket. Maybe this bill doesn't put the kibosh on ALL personal data transfer to CCP, but it's a start. Perfect is the enemy of good enough.

I don't use TikTok. You couldn't pay me to use it, much less put their app on my mobile devices. I think the people who do use it are, quite frankly, idiots.

But, unless the government has clear and irrefutable evidence it is presenting a national security threat it ought not be banning its use by the general public.

Given the current state of "justice" and "law enforcement" out of D.C. and in some states, maybe not even then.

Funny how the headline that they use for the bill isn't ever what the bill actually is.

IMO this won't fix anything. The stated purpose of this bill is to coerce ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok, thereby - theoretically - breaking whatever data flow there may be between TikTok and the Chinese government. OK, fine. But, again IMO, the way the Chinese government works, I'd expect them to find some way to coerce or bribe TikTok to just give them whatever data they want, directly instead of routing it through ByteDance.

quote:

President Joe Biden has said he would sign it if it makes it to his desk

Didn’t the White House just brag they were finally on TikTok a couple of weeks ago?

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I don't use TikTok. You couldn't pay me to use it, much less put their app on my mobile devices. I think the people who do use it are, quite frankly, idiots.

But, unless the government has clear and irrefutable evidence it is presenting a national security threat it ought not be banning its use by the general public.

Given the current state of "justice" and "law enforcement" out of D.C. and in some states, maybe not even then.

US companies are not allowed to run social media sites in China. Why should China be allowed to run social media in the US? Especially taking into account that CCP has total control over them. Reciprocity is one of the cornerstones of foreign relations.

quote:

Originally posted by echidna:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Saw Vivek today on Crowder, he states it is not specifically a TIK TOK issue and should be a blanket policy of supplying personal data and data mining to the Chicoms.
Seems we are being a bit myoptic.
Plenty of other companies US and other that are feeding the Chicom beast.
We apparently are not thinking this through.

"But Officer, other people are speeding too" never got anyone out of a ticket.

Maybe this bill doesn't put the kibosh on ALL personal data transfer to CCP, but it's a start.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough.

Yeah, that logic is not solid and your example is even worse.

Making a law against a specific company and specific country only addresses a teeny tip of the iceberg of what is happening.

Think it through and fix it for all scenarios not just whack one mole to see another pop up.

Since Internet news outlets don't feel they need to link to the actual legislation, here it is...

https://docs.house.gov/billsth...207521%20Updated.pdf

Surprisingly, it is only 13 pages.

Do nothing until we have THE PERFECT SOLUTION is the position which ensures NOTHING is ever done. Because perfect solutions are elusive and almost impossible to achieve.

Are there any other CCP-controlled social media sites in the US? I don't know about any, not with the # of users in tens of millions anyway. So for every practical purpose dealing with TikTok individually is as good as any "universal" solution. "Done is better than perfect".

PS. CCP is welcome to retaliate and ban an US-owned social media... Wait... they are already banned there, aren't they?

Or how about get rid of the Patriot Act and the Freedom of Imformation.

This is the Camel's nose. Don't let it in. With all the real issues going on with China, THIS is the big worry?

I don't use Tik Yok and I think the problem is much larger that that.

Proceed with caution below, because I choose to believe we'd need to know more. Some conservative house members opposed this bill, and some serious slime (like Pelosi) were excited to support it. Please speak up if you can add info.

Tonight's Rob Schmidt show had healthy skepticism that this bill could be a Trojan Horse. The issue at hand seems to be the collection of data could be sent to CCP on demand (OK I get this point), yet there is no provable example to date. The bill does nothing to stop the collection of data, which could be used by this government, and who's recent record of trustworthiness or motive is in question. Also does nothing to improve the app or protect young minds. There is a paragraph which is ambiguous in nature which may grants US gov authority to regulate info it dislikes. Hmmm.. where did we hear this before?

https://theconservativetreehou...ontrol-pdf-included/

HR7521 – The TikTok Ban Law (as written) is NOT About Banning TikTok, It’s About Information Control – pdf Included
March 12, 2024 | Sundance | 368 Comments
I swear by all that I know to be righteous and accurate, the combined willpower of the UniParty in Washington DC is not targeting TikTok from the perspective of concern over data collection. Instead, the DC system -which is to say the USIC- is using the auspices of TikTok to expand the reach of government censorship and control information.

This is a domestic information space battle, using the guise of TikTok as a baseline for justification. How do we know? You only need to look at the mechanism of the law as it is written, the compliance section, and the definitions they are using to see they are not targeting data collection. [pdf of HR7521 HERE]

If TikTok data collection was the issue, the law would be structured to ban foreign data collection. That’s not what this is. This is a law written to give the Executive Branch the power to define any platform as “foreign owned” by the service provider (even if domestic) and the substance of the content contained and/or distributed. This has to be stopped.



[Source pdf, Page 8 – HR7521]

Read the law as written through the prism of “Information Control,” not the prism of data collection. The law is designed to control information, not data collection.

As readers are well aware, the USIC is in alignment (I would say control) with almost all U.S-based social media platforms. This is why/how DHS is operating in synergy with those same systems. This is also the motive behind the mis-dis-mal-information definitions. Ultimately, if you stand back and look at what is being done, you see the concern of the U.S. government is not data collection, its information control.

The TikTok ban, authorized by a duplicious Legislative branch, is expanding the ability of the Executive branch to control information. Just as The Patriot Act was not about targeting terrorism, but really about domestic surveillance; so too is the TikTok ban not about foreign data collection, it’s about information control.

Again, read the law as written and you can clearly see this is a law created to authorize the agencies of the government to control information. Silence is the same as consent in the face of oppression. Do not be silent.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
IMO this won't fix anything. The stated purpose of this bill is to coerce ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok, thereby - theoretically - breaking whatever data flow there may be between TikTok and the Chinese government. OK, fine. But, again IMO, the way the Chinese government works, I'd expect them to find some way to coerce or bribe TikTok to just give them whatever data they want, directly instead of routing it through ByteDance.

Agreed,, I'm bettin the chinks already have sleeper bugs in place. I mean with the vast amount of interweb.... I had read somewhere that they were monitoring the thermostat changes at the headquarters of the U.S. department of Commerce.

Mind your manners

The U.S. government doesn’t want competition in harvesting our data.