On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok by a vote of 360 to 58. The bill now moves to the Senate and will be put to a vote in the coming days.

TikTok is concerned about the bill and claims that it violates Americans’ right to free speech. According to the new law, TikTok will be banned if the Chinese owner ByteDance does not sell its stake by the end of this year.

What is the reason for this law

US lawmakers are overwhelmingly convinced that this social network poses a threat to US national security. Sooner or later, China will force the company to share the personal data of 170 million Americans. According to lawmakers, TikTok can be used by the Chinese government as a propaganda tool. Democratic Senator Mark Warner is convinced that this is easy to do nowadays, as many young people follow the news on social media.

In turn, researchers from Columbia University say that there is no real benefit in this bill. China and other US opponents will easily be able to buy Americans’ personal information from brokers on the open market. And disinformation can also be spread through American social media platforms.