Why the United States passed a law to force the sale of TikTok (or ban the social network if it doesn’t go through)

During the day of this Tuesday, the Senate of UNITED STATES passed a bill banning the use of Tic Tac unless its parent company, Chinese company ByteDance, sells it to a new company it doesn’t come from the Asian country.

The proposal was included in a broader aid package for Ukraine and Israel. . In total, it was approved by 79 votes in favor and 18 against.

However, For the measure to take effect, it is necessary for President Joe Biden to sign The legislation.

In this direction, The president has already promised to give it approval as confirmed by a statement reviewed by The edge .

The decision to register the project on the social network in the foreign aid program was due to the intention to accelerate its approval in Congress, as saved Infobae .

Although a previous version had been dealt with before, it gave ByteDance a six-month deadline to get rid of it. of his participation in TikTok.

However, This has led some lawmakers to express doubts. due to the costs that an operation could entail in the short term.

That is why the most recent version extended it to nine months, during which time the China You will have to sell the app if you don’t want it banned in the USA.

If the sale is in progress, there is the possibility of a three-month extension .

The North American country’s fears regarding the social network are due to the fact that They assume that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over the data of more than 170 million users. that the application has on its territory.

Despite, The company insisted that it does not provide information on foreign profiles to the Chinese government. .

During the meeting which took place this Tuesday, the chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Maria Cantwell, declared that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other specific company” .

Rather, he assured that The goal is “to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, and malicious operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our soldiers, and our government personnel.” the United States”.