The Chairman Of The US House Of Representatives Supports The TikTok Check Bill On Government-Owned Devices

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports the addition of legislation passed by the Senate on TikTok.(photo: twitter @Speaker Pelosi ·)

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports the addition of legislation passed by the Senate last week, which would ban federal government employees from using Chinese company-owned TikTok, ByteDance, on government-owned devices, and on government funding bills.

A Pelosi spokesman said he supports a law that includes TikTok's provisions in legislation to fund the government that the House of Representatives will take next week.

Pelosi's support, along with Representative Kevin McCarthy, a senior Republican House of Representatives, significantly increases the possibility that the provision will be adopted next week.

The Senate on Wednesday, December 1, voted on a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley to ban federal employees from using China's video app on government-owned devices.

It was the latest action by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies amid national security concerns that Beijing could use them to spy on American society.

TikTok said the concern was largely fueled by misinformation. The law will not affect more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok on private or company-owned devices.

Many federal agencies, including the White House and the Ministry of Defense, Homeland Security, and the State Department, have banned TikTok from government-owned devices.

If the DPR approves its TikTok provisions, then the Senate should add a similar ban to the version of its spending bill before sending it to President Joe Biden for signature.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday 15 December declined to say whether Biden would support TikTok's laws. "We will let Congress move forward with their processes," he said.

Emily Kilcrease, a senior partner at the Center for a New American Security and former deputy assistant trade representative for the US, said she views "the movement at the top mostly as a sign of frustration as we haven't found anything to do with this after so many years." So I think this is more of a sign of political frustration than any new meaningful restrictions."

Also on Friday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said the states joined New Hampshire, Wyoming, Georgia, North Dakota, Idaho and Iowa this week and more and more US states banned ByteDance Ltd's TikTok from state-owned devices amid concerns that data could be forwarded to the Chinese government.

In 2020, Republican President Donald Trump tried to block new users from downloading TikTok and banned other transactions that would effectively block the use of apps in the United States, but lost a series of court battles over the action.

The US government's Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS) and the national security agency have for months been trying to reach a national security deal to protect US TikTok user data, but there seems to be no agreement to be reached before the end of this year.