Charlie Puth performs at the TikTok in the Mix music festival at Sloan Park on Dec. 10, 2023. © Joseph Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
Syndication: Arizona Republic
(Washington, D.C.) — A bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. has advanced out of committee. The House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted to advance the bipartisan bill. It would require the popular social media app’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest the app. The “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was introduced by Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher and Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi earlier this week. If the bill gets passed into law, ByteDance would then have about five months to sell TikTok before the ban goes into effect.
Lawmakers were inundated with calls from kids across the country on Thursday begging them to leave the popular social media platform alone. TikTok has about 170 million users in the U.S. One Congressional staffer says her office phone was ringing off the hook all day. Many of the callers claimed that TikTok had encouraged them to take action.
