President Biden Supports TikTok Release Bill From ByteDance, Trump Expresses Concerns

US President Joe Biden will sign the TikTok release law. (photo: @potus)

JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden said on Friday March 8 that he would sign a law granting Chinese company ByteDance about six months to release the popular TikTok short video app and used by 170 million Americans.

The plan, the US House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday or Wednesday 12 March on the TikTok bill of punishment after a committee on Thursday 7 March unanimously approved the move. The board will vote on proposals under rules requiring two-thirds of members to vote "yes" for approval.

"If they pass it, I will sign it," Biden, president of the 9 Democratic Party, told the media. The bill faces uncertain results in the Senate, where some lawmakers say they want changes to the law.

Trump, a Republican who wants to return to the White House in the November election, expressed his objection to the ban on TikTok, saying on social media: "If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook... will double their business," adding that he didn't want Facebook to "get better."

Trump previously criticized Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent, for revocation of access to Facebook and Instagram after removing two of its posts during the riots on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. But his account was finally restored in February 2023.

The Trump Campaign Team did not immediately comment on whether he had a position on the law. Meta Platforms declined to comment.

The Justice Department told the Council's Energy and Trade Committee that a stock-loss bill, rather than the TikTok ban bill, would put the government in a stronger legal position.

Mike Pence, who serves as vice president under Trump's administration, supports a bill on the Council on TikTok. "China is poisoning the minds of American children. That's enough," he wrote on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

The bill will give ByteDance 165 days to release TikTok. If it fails to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Google, and others are no longer valid to offer TikTok or provide web hosting services for apps controlled by ByteDance.

In 2020, Trump tried to ban TikTok and WeChat owned by China but were rejected by the court.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who previously blocked efforts to speed up the ban on TikTok, responded to Trump's statement saying the former president helped address concerns about US users TikTok through a $1.5 billion company project.

"So why is the Republican Party on the Council sided with Biden and is still trying to ban Tik Tok?" Paul wrote on X, using abbreviation for Republicans. "If Congress bans TikTok, they will act the same as Chinese communists who have also banned TikTok... Why not just defend the first amendment?"

Trump said in an executive order in August 2020 that TikTok's data collection "threatened to grant the Chinese Communist Party access to personal information and American property potentially allowed China to track the location of Federal employees and contractors, build personal information files for extortion, and carry out corporate espionage."

TikTok, which says it has never and will not share US user data with the Chinese government, argues that the Council Bill is a ban. It is unclear whether China will approve any sale or whether TikTok can be released in six months.

"This bill has pre-determined results: a total ban on TikTok in the United States," the company said after the Council's Energy and Trade Committee vote. "The government is trying to revoke 170 million Americans' constitutional rights to free expression."

The app is popular and has received legislative approval from both the Council and the Senate in difficult election years. Last month, Biden's re-nomination campaign joined TikTok. The Trump Campaign Team has not joined TikTok.