On Wednesday, March 13, 2024, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) declared that she would not support legislation that would compel TikTok’s parent firm, based in China, to remove the app or risk being banned in the United States.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared, “I’m voting NO on the TikTok forced sale bill.” “There was little explanation and a tremendous rush to move this bill from committee to vote in just four days
“This raises significant privacy and antitrust issues, and any national security concerns ought to be disclosed to the public before a vote,” she continued.
The bill was introduced last week, and the House will vote on it on Wednesday morning. Two days later, the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” was unanimously advanced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The law would give ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok, 165 days from the day it is passed to remove itself from the well-known social media app that features videos or risk having it removed from US app stores and web hosting providers.
On Friday, President Biden declared that if Congress approves the bill, he will sign it. The law, which addresses possible threats to national security and data privacy presented by the app, has been hailed by the White House as “an important and welcome step.”
A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement last week that “the Administration has worked with Members of Congress from both parties to arrive at a durable legislative solution that would address the threat of technology services operating in the United States in a way that poses risks to Americans’ sensitive data and our broader national security.”
