US bill to ban TikTok

US congressmen have submitted a bill on possible ban on TikTok in the country, TASS reports

American congressmen have submitted a bill that envisages a ban on the TikTok social network in the United States if ties between it and the ByteDance technology company of China are maintained.

The bill aims to break all sort of liaisons between TikTok and any Chinese-controlled entity, including ByteDance. Congressmen give the company six months to sell the social network, otherwise, a ban on the TikTok use in the United States, including the app placement on network platforms, is possible.

The authors of the bill – Mike Gallagher (Republican from Wisconsin), who chairs the House of Representatives select committee on China, and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi (from Illinois) – propose extending the same measures in the future to any ‘applications controlled by opponents’. As a rule, the US government views Iran, China, North Korea and Russia as such opponents.

TikTok, a social network owned by ByteDance that enables its users to upload short videos, was launched in 2017, and its international version began operating in August 2018.