The U.S. Congress finally passed a bill that would force the sale of TikTok, a video sharing app created by a Chinese company.
This means that if the business rights in the U.S. are not sold within up to one year, the TikTok service will be banned altogether.
This is correspondent Wang Jong-myeong in Washington.
◀ Report ▶
The amendment to the TikTok compulsory sale bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives three days ago also passed the Senate threshold today.
The bill, titled ‘Peace Through Strength in the 21st Century,’ requires TikTok’s parent company, Chinese company ByteDance, to sell TikTok’s US business rights within 270 days or ban its services in the US.
However, the president was allowed to extend the sale deadline by 90 days.
Previously, the House of Representatives passed a bill with the same purpose last month, and this amendment extended the business rights sale period from 6 months to a maximum of 12 months.
President Biden, who recently used TikTok in his election campaign, has already pledged to sign the bill if it passes Congress.
[조 바이든/미국 대통령(지난 달)]
″Once it finally passes, I will sign it.″
The reason the Biden administration, as well as both Democratic and Republican parties, came together to force the sale of TikTok’s business rights is because of security concerns that all information on TikTok users could be transferred to the Chinese government.
[존 커비/백악관 국가안보회의 조정관]
″He made it clear to President Xi Jinping that this was not about banning the app, but rather that the interest in divesting the company was to further national security interests.″
TikTok is protesting that its headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore and that it does not provide any information to the Chinese government, so it cannot be guaranteed whether the sale of the business rights will proceed smoothly.
If the sale does not go through, TikTok’s 170 million subscribers in the U.S. will no longer be able to use it.
China has also recently countered by suspending the use of American apps used in China, such as WhatsApp.
This is Wang Jong-myeong from MBC News in Washington.
