US Senate Votes to Ban TikTok From All Federal Government Devices; Bill to Be Presented in House of Representatives
Washington, August 6: The United States Senate on Thursday voted to ban TikTok from being downloaded on all federal government devices. The bill was unanimously passed by Republican-controlled Senate. It will now be presented before the House of Representatives, led by Democrats. On July 16, Republican Senator Josh Hawley tabled the bill in the senate. Microsoft to Continue Discussions to Explore Purchase of TikTok From ByteDance After Talks With US President Donald Trump.
The development came days after US President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to TikTok, directing the Chinese video-sharing application to sell its business stakes in the United States by "around September 15". Trump had said that failing to comply with the deadline, TikTok would have to completely shut its operations in the country.
"TikTok will be 'out of business' in the US if not sold by around September 15," reported news agency AFP quoting the US President as saying. Recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also said that the US is looking to ban Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, alleging that it shared information with the Chinese government.
Under a law introduced in 2017 in China, Chinese companies have to share data of their apps with the country's government if asked for it. However, TikTok in the past told Reuters that it had never provided user data to the Chinese government.
