JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump said on Monday 22 April that US President Joe Biden is currently "encouraged" to ban TikTok and would be responsible if the ban was imposed. Trump also urged voters to pay attention to this.
The US House of Representatives approved cross-party legislation with a 360-58 vote on Saturday, April 20, which will give Chinese TikTok owners, ByteDance, about to release shares of ownership in the US or face bans.
The bill will now move to the Senate. If passed there, Biden had said he would sign it to become a law.
Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday that Biden would be responsible for banning TikTok. "He encouraged him to close, and did so to help his friends on Facebook become richer and more dominant," Trump wrote.
Trump then urged young voters - which is an important part of TikTok's user base - to consider Biden's position on Election Day.
However, when he became president in 2020, Trump himself tried to ban TikTok and WeChat owned by China for national security reasons but were blocked by the courts.
TikTok, which says it has never and will not share US user data with the Chinese government, has argued that the ban will trampled on the right to free speech under the United States Constitution' First Amendment to 170 million users of its apps in the country.
The company notified employees by email over the weekend that as soon as Biden signs the law, "we will move to court for legal challenges. We will continue to struggle, because this legislation is a real violation of the First Amendment."
A White House spokesman said on Monday: "We don't want to ban apps like TikTok. What we want - and what the legislation we support - is to ensure that TikTok is owned by American companies so that our sensitive personal data and our children stay here rather than go to China and so that Americans' understanding and views cannot be manipulated by potentially PRC-controlled algorithms."
Recently, Trump has argued that limiting TikTok will strengthen Meta Platforms Inc. app, Facebook, a platform he has criticized since access to was lifted following riots on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Its account reactivated last year.
Under the legislation, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet's Google, and others cannot legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services for apps controlled by ByteDance once the divestment deadline passes.
In February, Biden's re-nomination campaign joined TikTok. Trump's campaign is not.
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