Photo: LightRocket
Insiders claim that a TikTok ban in the United States is "inevitable" after the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill calling for such action to take place, the New York Post reports.
The amendment, which calls on TikTok's parent company, ByteDance in China, to sell the application or face a nationwide U.S. ban, was passed by a 360 to 58 vote and will head to the Senate alongside three other bills calling for aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Senate leaders publicly promised to move swiftly with their voting in order for the bills to be signed by President Joe Biden as soon as possible.
“The Ban was inevitable. It was just how we would get there that was up for debate,” a Senate insider told the Post. “TikTok did a horrible job fighting for its corporate life.”
Last May, Montana became the first U.S. state to ban TikTok after Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill into law, though the decision was later blocked by a U.S. judge last November. The state later appealed the court's decision, claiming its consumer protection interest outweighed First Amendment concerns by the lower court as a partial basis to block the law.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the app had more than 150 million regular users in the U.S. while appearing before Congress to address privacy concerns in March 2023. President Biden signed a bill prohibiting the nearly 4 million U.S. federal government employees from using TikTok on devices owned by its agencies in 2022.