Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee have voted to approve a bill that would give President Joe Biden the ability to ban the Chinese social media app Tik Tok in the United States.
Lawmakers voted along party lines 24 to 16 to approve the measure, with Democrats opposing the bill saying it was too broad.
The Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries (DATA) act, introduced on Friday by Committee chair Mike McCaul (R-Texas), would create a legal framework that would allow Biden to ban TikTok, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, and other apps owned by Chinese companies deemed a security threat.
READ: TikTok banned from European Parliament devices over cybersecurity fears
“TikTok is a modern-day Trojan Horse of the CCP (Chinese Community Part) used to surveil and exploit Americans’ personal information,” McCaul said during the committee’s discussion of the bill.
“This legislation is the first step in protecting Americans against subversive data collection.”
In response, a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement provided to media outlets: "A US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide.
"We're disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok."
Advancement of the act comes just days after the US moved to ban TikTok from all government-issued devices, giving agencies 30 days to delete the app or any other app from Bytedance with limited exceptions for national security, law enforcement, and research purposes.
The Canadian federal government and the European Parliament have also made moves to ban TikTok on staff devices over cybersecurity concerns.
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