The US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that would force TikTok to split from its parent company in China to avoid a US ban.

The bill was approved by a vote of 352 to 65, with 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats, and must now be approved by the Senate and ratified by the President. Joe Biden, who said he would sign the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on the Senate to approve the bill so the US president could sign it into law, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did not say whether the House would allow a floor vote.

Upon hearing this news, TikTok sources criticized the secrecy of this process, calling it an attempt to “ban“So they hope the Senate will “look at the facts, listen to its constituents and recognize the economic impact” that moving the legislation forward will have.

The proposal was already unanimously ratified last Thursday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and if it is finally approved by both houses and the government, it will give the Chinese 180 days. ByteDancecompany that owns TikTok to sell the app in the US.

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The bill on TikTok, a platform with 170 million US users, was introduced by Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who said in a statement that “as long as TikTok is owned by ByteDance, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled entity poses a serious threat to US national security “

Former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) tried to ban TikTok, citing the same “threat to national security” reason, but the measure ended up in court and was overturned by current President Joe Biden without ever going into effect.

At that time, ByteDance was negotiating with Microsoft to sell part of the company.

Trump now opposes a TikTok ban, while the White House has backed a legal initiative to ensure data collected by the social network in the US does not fall into the hands of China, something ByteDance denies.

Tech companies with social platforms reacted positively to news out of Washington about their rival TikTok, with YouTube owner Alphabet up 1.9% at midday and Snapchat owner Snap up 1.19%%; The most striking was the rise of Rumble (+15%).

But it wasn’t all like that: Meta, the owner of Instagram, fell 0.68%, while Pinterest lost 0.17%. EFE