White House backs bipartisan Bill that could lead to TikTok ban

Washington: The White House endorsed a bipartisan bill that could give the President authority to ban or force a sale of TikTok, support that could hasten its passage and break a deadlock over how to handle privacy concerns around the popular Chinese-owned app.

Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, are among co-sponsors of the legislation.

The bill introduced yesterday would give the President the ability to force the sale of



foreign-owned technologies, applications, software or e-commerce platforms if they present a national security threat to US users.

It doesn’t mention Beijing-based Bytedance Ltd.'s TikTok by name but the video-sharing app, which has about 100 million users in the US, is the clear target.

This is the first time the Biden administration has weighed in on legislation to deal with the app, which the White House says poses national security risks.