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Watch live as legislation that could ban TikTok in the US is debated in the House on Wednesday, 13 March.
Lawmakers are due to hold a vote at around 10am on the bill, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which could bar the app from the country if ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake in the video-sharing platform within six months.
Joe Biden has already said he would sign a bill banning TikTok if Congress passes it.
It comes after the bill passed through the US House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously on Thursday (7 March).
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the legislation “still needs some work” to get to a place where the US president would endorse it.
TikTok has repeatedly come under fire from US lawmakers who want to restrict the app amid growing concern in about keeping Americans’ data out of China’s hands.
The FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that owner ByteDance could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian government.
TikTok said it has never done that and wouldn’t do so if asked, and the US government has not provided evidence.
Donald Trump has come out in opposition of the ban, saying in a Truth Social post on Thursday he believed it would help rival social media platform Facebook.
The former US president issued — and then rescinded — an executive action late in his tenure intended to ban TikTok and another popular app, WeChat.
Source: independent.co.uk
