The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to present legislation allowing President Biden to ban TikTok.
The bill comes as the committee voted on a series of potential bills related to China ahead of a congressional investigation into China's use of what the U.S. said was an espionage ballon in its airspace.
Former President Trump had previously tried to ban TikTok.
- In September 2020, he was set to approve a tentative deal for TikTok to work with Oracle and Walmart that would have made the U.S. companies responsible for ensuring the app's safety and remaining liable to the U.S. government.
- After Trump was defeated in November 2020, the issue was forgotten, as many legislative proposals were ignored following his loss, and the issue wasn't a primary concern for Biden.
- Upon entering office, Biden revoked all executive orders that attempted to ban or limit the use of TikTok but did sign executive orders to create a system for the government to evaluate the risks of technology companies from foreign companies.
- TikTok has previously overcome efforts to ban the app and successfully defeated an attempt by the Trump administration to ban Apple and Google from listing TikTok in their app stores, arguing that such a restriction breached the Berman amendments.
- Only Texas Republican Mike McCaul has sponsored the current bill, but since he is the committee's new chairman, it will move to committee votes despite being a new bill.
- Congress has already passed a bill that bans TikTok from being downloaded on any government device.
