House Commerce Committee To Mark Up New TikTok Bill Thursday

MNI London: The House Commerce Committee will meet on Thursday to mark up new legislation - introduced by House China Committee Chair Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) - which demands that Chinese company Bytedance divest TikTok or face a US ban.

• According to Congressional aides, "the bill would make it unlawful to distribute TikTok via Apple or Google app stores or to provide web hosting services to Bytedance controlled applications."
• Reuters reports that the legislation, which was undersigned by more than a dozen other lawmakers, "to address national security concerns posed by Chinese ownership of the app" would, "give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok, which is used by more than 170 million Americans, or it would be unlawful for app stores operated by Apple, Google and others to offer TikTok or to provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications."
• Although this Congress has been riven by partisan disputes, legislation which seeks to limit China's influence in sectors which are critical to US national security tends to gain bipartisan support. Therefore the bill has a good chance of becoming law.
• As with recent a Congressional drive to limit China's access to tech components, Beijing will likely argue that the US Congress is unreasonably clamping down on Chinese commercial interests via a loose definition of national security.