US House Votes to Ban Chinese App "TikTok"

The US House approved by a large majority, Wednesday, a bill to ban the social media app “Tik Tok” if it is not separated from the Chinese company that owns it.

The decision stipulates that the application be banned from U.S. app stores, unless it is separated from the Chinese parent company "ByteDance", while the bill requires the company to sell it within 180 days, and if it does not do that, it will be banned in U.S. stores, web hosting services.

The vote was 352 votes in favor and 65 opposed, with 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voting against the project.

The fate of the measure in the Senate is not yet clear, although voting in favor of the resolution in the House does not make it a law, as it must also be approved in the Senate.

In its first reaction to the measure, the TikTok app criticized in a statement “accelerating the project and taking the measure in closed sessions,” noting that its attention has now turned to the Senate to prevent the ban from moving forward.

“This operation was confidential,” the statement read. “We hope the Senate will look at the facts, listen to its constituents, and recognize the impact on the economy, the 7 million small businesses, and 170 million Americans who use it.”