Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the US government should not ban TikTok.
Musk, in a tweet from his Twitter account (now called X) yesterday, stated, “While such a ban might benefit X platform, TikTok should not be banned in the US.” The technology billionaire emphasized that such a move would violate the fundamental values of the US, stating, “Doing so would be contrary to freedom of expression and thought.”
In a session held last month in the lower house of the US Congress, the House of Representatives, a bill proposing the ban of TikTok in the country was approved with 352 votes against 65. However, the Senate rejected the bill.
The bill initially provided 165 days for the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok. However, the House of Representatives later amended it, extending the period to one year.
If the company fails to sell within the allotted time, the platform is expected to be removed from app stores such as Apple and Google.
The new bill will be considered alongside a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In today’s vote, the aid packages and the TikTok ban bill will be voted on separately. Those passed will be presented to the Senate as a single bill.
US President Joe Biden had stated that he would approve the bill if it passed Congress. Biden had also expressed concerns about TikTok during his conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 2.
Washington had alleged that ByteDance collects data through the app and that Beijing uses TikTok for propaganda purposes. ByteDance and China have repeatedly denied these allegations.
In a statement from ByteDance’s official Twitter account on Wednesday, it was stated that banning the app, which has approximately 170 million users in the US, would be a mistake. The statement mentioned, “If such a decision is made, 7 million businesses will suffer, and a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy annually will be shut down.”
