A bipartisan bill introduced by the GOP chair of the House China committee and the Democratic ranking member of the committee would force China’s ByteDance to sell off TikTok or face having it banned in app stores in the US.
The bill, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, creates a process for the president — through the FBI and intelligence agencies — to identify certain social media applications under the control of a foreign adversary, like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, as a national security threat.
Once those apps are deemed a risk, they would be banned from online app stores and web-hosting services unless they sever ties with entities under control of the foreign adversary within 180 days of the designation. That would mean TikTok, which FBI Director Christopher Wray has testified poses a risk to national security,…
