Ban on TikTok: China warns US amid pressures on app

Former president Donald Trump also did not favour shutting down TikTok as it would make Facebook "bigger"

Web Desk

March 13, 2024

A Chinese flag flutters above the Chinese national emblem at the Great Hall of the People after the opening session of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China. — Reuters/File — A Chinese flag flutters above the Chinese national emblem at the Great Hall of the People after the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China. — Reuters/File

As the US moves to legally ban TikTok across the country amid the House of Representatives passing a bill, China issued a warning about barring the ByteDance-owned platform saying it “come back to bite”.

US House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill seeking to ban the video application. In the second phase, the bill will now move to the Senate for a vote.

AFP reported Wednesday quoting the Chinese foreign ministry as saying: “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok."

If the ban is imposed, the application will be removed from all the app stores across the country unless the parent company ByteDance sells its ownership.

"This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order," the spokesperson Wang Webin stated.

A demonstrator outside the US Capitol following a press conference by TikTok creators to voice their opposition to an Act pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Reps on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 12, 2024. — Reuters

"In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the US itself," Wang continued.

On Monday former US president Donald Trump also did not favour shutting down TikTok as it would make Facebook "bigger", terming Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook the "enemy of the people."

Legislators in the US Congress are considering carrying out measures that would cause ByteDance to sell TikTok by September 30.

The 77-year-old told NBC News Monday: "Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people."

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures to supporters during a campaign rally at the Forum River Center in Rome, Georgia on March 9, 2024. — Reuters

While talking about the security associated with the app, he said: "There's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad with the social media platform."

"There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it," Donald Trump added.

The intelligence community in the US raised concerns about the platforms used against democracy and the country’s leadership.

On Monday a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote that TikTok accounts from the Chinese government's propaganda arm "reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the US midterm election cycle in 2022."