Here's where TikTok has been banned worldwide
Nepal banned TikTok last year, calling it a threat to "social harmony."
India has banned TikTok, along with other Chinese apps, citing national security concerns.
Pakistan has banned and unbanned TikTok several times. It is currently legal.
Kyrgyzstan banned it last year, saying it harms child development.
Iran's and Russia's internet censorship laws render TikTok inaccessible to citizens.
Many other countries, including all member states of the European Union and the United States, ban TikTok on government devices.
New Jersey congresswoman offers a Cold War analogy
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today that the House bill that could ban TikTok is an effort to "protect our national security" and "a means of saying that a foreign adversary should not be able to control the media." (TikTok is owned by the China-based company ByteDance.)
Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, then offered a historical analogy: "It really would be as if, during the Cold War, we allowed Russia to have ownership of ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal."
The House has begun voting on the TikTok ban
The House has begun voting on a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the company ends its ties with China, which TikTok has said it will not do.
TikTok creators are urging users to help #KeepTikTok
Thousands of TikTok users, many of whom say they’ve built entire livelihoods and communities on the app, are responding to the company’s plea to #KeepTikTok by urging against its potential ban.
The platform of more than 1 billion monthly active users is facing a bill that would force ByteDance, its China-based parent company, to divest TikTok or risk its ban from U.S. app stores.
Biden campaign posts on TikTok roughly an hour before vote set to begin
Biden has said he would sign a bill banning TikTok if it gets through both chambers of Congress. But in the meantime, Biden's presidential campaign continues to upload video clips and memes to the social media platform.
The campaign posted on TikTok roughly an hour before the House vote was set to begin. The post features a series of screenshots related to special counsel Robert Hur's investigation of the president, set to the Taylor Swift song "All Too Well."
"So... Ban Tiktok, but use it in the mean time to campaign? 💀 Pick a side," one TikTok user wrote in a comment on the post.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he will vote yes
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., officially came out in support of the bill on Wednesday ahead of the vote.
"The legislation before the Congress does not ban TikTok," he said. "It is designed to address legitimate national security and privacy concerns related to the Chinese Communist Party’s engagement with a frequently used social media platform."
He added, "The principled objections raised by several members of Congress to the bill are real and should not be dismissed. However, after careful consideration, I plan to vote yes on the legislation for the substantive reasons set forth above."
Trump’s newfound opposition to a TikTok ban isn’t swaying Republicans
Trump reversed course and now opposes a ban on social media giant TikTok. But his new stance — and a full-court press from TikTok and its millions of users — isn’t swaying his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill.
House GOP leaders are charging ahead with a vote Wednesday on legislation that would ban TikTok from U.S. app stores unless its parent company, China-based ByteDance, agrees to divest the popular video-based video app.
And even some of Trump’s conservative allies in Congress said they have no problem calling out their party’s presumptive nominee for president over his newfound position on TikTok.
“Well, he’s wrong. And by the way, he had his own executive orders and his own actions he was doing, and now … he’s suddenly flipped around on that,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus. “I mean, it’s not the first or last time that I’ll disagree with the former president. The TikTok issue is pretty straightforward.”
Trump says TikTok is a national security threat, but Facebook is ‘enemy of the people’
Former President Donald Trump said he believes that TikTok is a national security threat but that he couldn’t support Congress’ banning the popular app because doing so would boost support for Facebook, which is the “enemy of the people.”
Asked Monday morning whether he believes TikTok is a national security threat in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Trump said, “I do believe that.”
“I do believe it, and we have to very much admit we are protecting American people’s privacy and data rights,” he said.
Trump had initially supported efforts to ban the app in the U.S., but he recently reversed his support. Pressed about why he flipped, Trump said he could have banned TikTok during his presidency but left it up to Congress to do so.
“But as you know, I was at the point where I could have gotten it done if I wanted to. I should have said, you guys decide, you make that decision, because there are a lot of people who talk that love it,” he said. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users.”
Trump then argued that banning TikTok would lead to the growth of Facebook, which he slammed as an “enemy of the people.”
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” he said.
House to take up TikTok ban bill shortly
The House is poised to pass legislation Wednesday that could ban TikTok in the U.S. as Republicans and Democrats alike sound the alarm that the popular video-sharing app is a national security threat.
TikTok, owned by China-based parent company ByteDance, is mounting an aggressive lobbying campaign to kill the legislation, arguing that it would violate the First Amendment rights of its 170 million U.S. users and harm thousands of small businesses that rely on it.