Twenty US congressmen, Republicans and Democrats, announced today that they want to promote a bill that would ban TikTok in the US, as long as it does not cut its ties with its parent company ByteDance and, more generally, with China.

““We have come together, ten Democrats and ten Republicans, to introduce a bill that would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. unless it severed its ties to ByteDance or any entity controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” said the Republican congressman, president of a Committee responsible for China, Mike Gallagher. His Democratic colleague Raja Krishnamurthy assured that “this is not a ban” saying that “the ball is in the court of ByteDance or any other platform app that owns» in a foreign state.

According to Krishnamurti, “ByteDance has repeatedly used the TikTok platform to undermine not only US national security but also the interests of its users.“, adding that the evidence of the parent company’s ties to the Chinese armed forces is real.

“We’re asking ByteDance to sell TikTok so US users can continue to benefit” from the app, and at the same time, lawmakers want users to “tell ByteDance to sell the platform“, he added.

When asked by AFP, a spokesperson for the platform said that this law “it’s clearly a TikTok ban, however much its editors try to hide it».

“The law tramples on the First Amendment for 170 million Americans and will deprive five million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs“, he argued.

Many states and the federal government banned the app from being used on official devices by public employees, citing national security risks.

In Montana, a judge recently blocked a local initiative that aimed to ban the app entirely.

Many US officials believe that TikTok, the short video platform, is helping Beijing spy on and manipulate 150 US users. The company denies the charges.