US House panel approves bill giving Biden power to ban TikTok

Measure focused on app used by 100 million Americans inches towards votes in full House and Senate

The fate of the TikTok measure is still uncertain and it needs to be passed by the full House and Senate before it can go to US President Joe Biden. Getty

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday along party lines to give President Joe Biden the power to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and others.

Members of the committee voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure that grants the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app used by more than 100 million Americans as well as other apps believed to pose security risks.

Democrats on the committee opposed the bill, which was sponsored by Republican chairman Michael McCaul.

The fate of the measure is still uncertain, as it needs to be passed by the full House and Senate before it can go to Mr Biden.

Mr McCaul told Reuters after the vote that the TikTok bill would likely be taken up on the floor “fairly soon” and voted on by the full House this month.

Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said he strongly opposed the legislation because it would “damage our allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China's sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise”.

TikTok is wildly popular among teenagers, but there are concerns China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or try to push misinformation or narratives favourable to Beijing on the platform.

China has been pushing back, though its ruling Communist Party has long blocked many foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram — and TikTok. A Chinese version of the app, Douyin, is permitted, but its content is not the same as that found on TikTok.

Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokeswoman, said in a statement on Monday: “It would be unfortunate if the House Foreign Affairs Committee were to censor millions of Americans, and do so based not on actual intelligence, but on a basic misunderstanding of our corporate structure.”

Congress has already banned TikTok on government devices, and the Biden administration on Monday issued guidance giving federal employees 30 days to remove it.

Agencies contributed to this report