VP Kamala Harris makes big announcement on Biden administration’s plans for TikTok
As the TikTok bill sits in the United States Senate with an uncertain future, Vice President Kamala Harris has given an insight into what Joe Biden’s government will potentially do with the video-sharing app owned by China-based company ByteDance.
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok across the country after it received a 352-65 vote, the HuffPost reported.
President Joe Biden has said he intends to sign the bill if it passes in the Senate.
While users dread the app’s ban, Harris claims that the Biden administration does not aim to that.
“We do not intend to ban TikTok. That is not at all the goal or the purpose of this conversation,” Harris said in an interview with ABC News. “We need to deal with the owner, and we have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok, but we have no intention to ban TikTok.”
She highlighted that the administration realises that the app is “an income generator for many people, what it does in terms of allowing people to share information in a free way, in a way that allows people to have discourse. It’s very important.”
According to the HuffPost, TikTok has over 170 million users across the US, with a creator economy that has contributed to an industry worth over $250 billion.
The bill would prohibit “foreign adversary controlled applications, such as TikTok and any successor application or service and any other application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Ltd or an entity under the control of ByteDance Ltd”.
ByteDance will be forced to sell the app or ban it in the US if the bill is passed.
