See How Minnesota House Lawmakers Voted on the TikTok Ban
In a vote on Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban TikTok in the US if the parent company based out of China doesn't sell. This means that the bill now goes to the Senate to be voted on.
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Why US Lawmakers are Concerned About TikTok
It's been a topic of concern for a while. The company that owns TikTok is called ByteDance and they're based out of China. The concern is that, as CBS writes, "the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over the data of its 170 million American users."
Under Chinese law, Chinese organizations are required to cooperate with intelligence gathering. This is why lawmakers are concerned and there have been many conversations about banning TikTok in the US.
The Bill to Possibly Ban TikTok in the US
Because of these continuing discussions, a bill has come around that, if passed by the House, Senate, and signed by the President, would basically give ByteDance two options: either they sell their portion of TikTok within 6 months of the bill passing or TikTok gets banned from US app platforms.
This is a huge deal. Like I mentioned earlier, 170 million Americans are on the platform. I don't personally have a TikTok but even on Facebook and Instagram, I see multiple TikToks a day. It's everywhere.
TikTok is also how a lot of people are earning a living right now and how many businesses are thriving. If this ban went into place it would disrupt a lot of things.
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How Minnesota House Lawmakers Voted on the TikTok Bill
So how did Minnesota House lawmakers vote on all of this? Here's the breakdown from the Office of the Clerk of the US House of Representatives:
Angie Craig - yea
Tom Emmer - yea
Brad Finstad - yea
Michelle Fischbach - yea
Betty McCollum - yea
Ilhan Omar - nay
Dean Phillips - nay
Pete Stauber - yea
Minnesota House Representatives voted 6-2 in favor of the bill. In total, the House passed the bill with 352 in favor and 65 opposed.
What Happens Now?
Now the bill makes its way to the Senate. CBS writes that it's unclear which direction the Senate will go right now on the vote so we'll have to wait and see. However, if it passes the Senate, President Biden has already said that he will sign it into law if it gets to his desk.
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Gallery Credit: Katelyn Leboff
