Joe Biden said he is willing to sign the controversial legislation that could lead to a complete ban on popular social media app TikTok.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has advanced a bipartisan bill that aims to force Chinese company ByteDance, to sell the platform or face removal from the U.S. market.
While boarding Air Force One en route to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Biden said of the bill, “If they pass it, I’ll sign it.”
President Biden answers numerous questions from the media, including on debating former President Trump, the State of the Union and the Middle East and…
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 8, 2024
Q: "Do you still support banning TikTok. Will you sign that bill?"
President Biden: "If they pass it, I'll sign it." pic.twitter.com/rLSdLvw8pM
The bill will require approval from both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner also supported the bill.
“I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Warner stated.
“If this is a vehicle that’s going to really be moving in the House, I’m going to take a good, solid look at it.”
The Cut reported:
This week, TikTok users opened the app to find a pop-up message urging them to call Congress and ask their representatives to stop a shutdown of the app.
The bill in question is the latest in a long series of efforts from policy-makers to address security concerns about the Chinese-owned app.
In the past year and a half, while federal entities go back and forth about the prospect of a nationwide ban, at least 33 U.S. states have limited the use of TikTok in some capacity.
Bans have also been introduced in cities, government-affiliated workplaces, and college campuses.
The idea of a TikTok ban has roots in the Trump administration, but it’s become a bipartisan issue as more politicians ring the alarm about TikTok’s murky relationship with its parent company, ByteDance, and the Chinese government.
While it may seem like overblown paranoia about a popular Gen-Z app that middle-age lawmakers just don’t understand, some of their concerns are legitimate.
Still, banning TikTok from app stores probably wouldn’t do much to keep American data safe. Here’s everything to know.
A small minority of lawmakers have spoken out against prospective TikTok bans, including New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, who’s likened the security concerns to a “red scare” and argued the panic is a result of Republican fearmongering and xenophobia.
A French neurologist warned last year that communist China is using TikTok to destroy the lives of millions of Western children while restricting its own children’s usage to benefit their academic development.
The Daily Fetched reported:
Neurologist and author Michel Desmurget said the app is destroying the academic potential of Western children.
“You can already see a significant difference between OECD countries and Asian countries. When China joined the Pisa program in 2009, which tests children’s abilities, it was a real electric shock for the West,” he told the German publication Die Welt.
“Even Barack Obama spoke of a Sputnik effect, referring to the trauma Americans experienced when the Russians sent the first satellite into space before they did. That’s exactly what then drove the United States to create NASA and launch massive space programs.”
READ: Teacher Fired after Defending Pedophiles in TikTok Video
