TikTok at risk of being completely banned in the US
The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that could result in TikTok being banned in the United States.
Passed due to concerns that the globally popular app poses national security risks, the bill calls for TikTok’s parent company – Chinese internet tech company ByteDance – to sell its stake in six months or face a total ban.
The vote passed overwhelmingly, with 352 members for it, while just 65 were against it.
Wisconsin Republican, Mike Gallagher, said this week that the US could not “take the risk of having a dominant news platform in America controlled or owned by a company that is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party”.
As reported by news.com.au, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there are currently no such plans for Australia.
“I think you’ve got to be pretty cautious. You’ve always got to have national security concerns front and centre, but you also need to acknowledge that for a whole lot of people, this provides a way of them communicating,” Albanese said.
“We haven’t got advice at this stage to do that (ban TikTok). We don’t use TikTok on government phones, and that is an appropriate measure that we’re putting in place.”
The news comes only weeks after Universal Music Group began pulling the music of its artists from the social media juggernaut due to contractual terms on a number of key issues that failed to be met.
In an open letter issued in January, addressed to “the artist and songwriter community”, UMG explained its core mission: “to help our artists and songwriters attain their greatest creative and commercial potential.”
With this front of mind, UMG outlined three causes of concern it is attempting to address before its contract with TikTok expires today: “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
It should be noted that some videos of UMG artists are still available on TikTok, but their music has been muted.
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Neil Griffiths is the editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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