President Joe Biden will “sign off” on a ban on TikTok in the U.S. if a bill is passed.
The popular video-sharing app has been warned to sever ties with its Chinese owner ByteDance or potentially face being banned. If the U.S. House of Representatives passes the legislation, TikTok could be given just six months to divest or be banned.
“If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” Biden told the press.
His opponent in the election, Donald Trump — who previously tried to ban the app in 2020 — took to his Truth Social platform. He said he would be against a ban of TikTok this time because it would allow Facebook to rule.
The former president also believes “kids will go crazy without it.”
“There’s a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad [with TikTok]. There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” he said.
TikTok has urged users in America to “let Congress know” that they don’t support a nationwide ban on the video-sharing app.
“Speak up now — before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO,” an advert on the app for US users read.
Fears were raised about the owners of the app potentially sharing information with the Chinese government.
TikTok’s parent company has repeatedly denied claims the Chinese government has access to user data on the app — which is very popular among teenagers and those in their 20s — and has called it “unfounded speculation.”
Already more than half of U.S. states and the federal government have banned TikTok from state-issued devices either completely or partially. Similar policies have been introduced in the Netherlands, the U.K. and the European Commission.
