Mariah Cain, Staff Writer
The House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted on Thursday to advance a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in America. The House wants TikTok to divest from their Chinese parent company, ByteDance. “First of all, if you didn’t think TikTok would engage in malicious behavior before today, you shouldn’t think so any longer: they are preventing users from using the platform unless you share your zip code (so they can tell you which member of Congress to call and repeat their lies.) Wow,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-TX, in a post to social media. “Second, the parent company of TikTok is ByteDance in China. China is not like the US. China can make companies do whatever the government wants, to include handing over data and weaponizing social media platforms for potentially the most far-reaching psych warfare operation in history.”
TikTok responded to the committee’s vote,“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” said the statement shared to social media. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
