China’s “Trojan Horse”. in the US ahead of the presidential election TikTok? China could use social media app TikTok to influence the 2024 US election, it warned on Tuesday Director of the US National Intelligence Service, Avril Haynes in her hearing before the House Intelligence Committee.

Asked by Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamurthy if the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would use TikTok to influence the election, Haynes replied: “We cannot rule out that the CCP would use it.”

Krishnamurthy is also the top Democrat on the House China Committee, and along with that committee’s China chairman, Mike Gallagher, introduced a bill last week that would ban the U.S. TikTok, as long as he does not cut his ties with the parent company ByteDance and, in general, with China.

The new law gives ByteDance about 6 months to sell its subsidiary and otherwise risk being banned from the social media in the US. About 170 million Americans use TikTok.

The US House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the bill tomorrow Wednesday, and a 2/3 vote is needed to pass the law. President Joe Biden said last week that he will sign the bill, if it passes the Parliament. Trump opposes the ban.

The US Intelligence Community’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment released on Monday said TikTok accounts run by a Chinese government propaganda arm allegedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the 2022 US midterm election cycle.

TikTok, which says it does not and will not share US user data with the Chinese government, argues that the House bill amounts to a ban. It is unclear whether China will approve any sale or whether TikTok could comply with the law within six months.