US House passes TikTok crackdown bill

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would give Chinese owner, ByteDance, six months to divest the popular short video TikTok app used by about 150 million Americans or face a ban.

The 352-65 vote had 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voting in opposition. One Democrat voted present.

It is unclear how the bill will progress in the Senate.

US President Joe Biden said last week he would sign the bill if it passed.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the "ultimate" objective of the bill is a question of ownership, not banning TikTok.

"Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok -- children's data, adults’ data -- to be going -- to be staying here in America or going to China?" he said.