President Joe Biden's White House appears to be on board with a legislative measure that will likely result in the ban of TikTok, among other apps.
Punchbowl News was the first to report the White House as stating that it "welcomes" the bill.
The bill is known as the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
It comes from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which is led by U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI)and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).
The big concern with apps such as TikTok is their connection to America's adversaries. TikTok, for example, is owned by ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Accordingly, there has been a strong push - for more than a year now - to ban the app due to national security concerns.
The legislation looks to address this issue.
"The bill prevents app store availability or web hosting services in the U.S. for ByteDance-controlled applications, including TikTok, unless the application severs ties to entities like ByteDance that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary, as defined by Congress in Title 10," the committee's website states.
It continues, "In addition, the bill creates a process for the President to designate certain, specifically defined social media applications that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary—per Title 10—and pose a national security risk. Designated applications will face a prohibition on app store availability and web hosting services in the U.S. unless they sever ties to entities subject to the control of a foreign adversary through divestment."
This bill has already garnered bipartisan support in Congress, and now it has the support of the White House.
A Biden administration's National Security Council spokesperson put out a statement, on Wednesday, supporting the legislation.
"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," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson went on to describe the bill as "important" and as a "welcome step to address that threat."
"We appreciate the work of Representatives Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi and we look forward to working with Congress to further strengthen this legislation to put it on the strongest possible legal footing," the spokesperson concluded.
TikTok has also released a statement on the matter. A spokesperson described the legislation as an "outright ban of TikTok" that will "trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans" and that will "deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs."
