Capital Economy, Business and Finance
As well as approving billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on Saturday, the US House passed a bill with a national security focus, including the fate of TikTok. The bill, which passed 360-58, requires TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, within a year (extended from an earlier suggestion of six months) or face a US ban. It goes to a Senate vote this week and Biden has previously said he’ll sign it into law. TikTok said after the vote that a potential ban would “trample the free speech” of its 170 million US users – it’s expected to turn to the courts if the bill passes, so the app isn’t going to disappear in the short-term. But it seems heads are starting to roll at the company: Bloomberg reports TikTok is removing its US-based general counsel who led years of talks to try to assuage US national security concerns.