TikTok is banned in the United States

The US Congress has passed a bill to ban TikTok. The popular video sharing app could be banned in the United States as a result of the bill's passage on Wednesday.

Chinese owner ByteDance has been given six months to relinquish its ownership of TikTok in the US. If not, TikTok may be shut down in the United States.

This bill was passed by a large vote in the House of Representatives of the lower house of Congress in the United States. It would later become law if signed by President Joe Biden.

US lawmakers are concerned about China's influence over TikTok. Because its owner, ByteDance, is based in Beijing. This is a matter of US national security, as the company is accused of providing user data to Chinese officials.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, one of the Republicans who introduced the bill. He said the United States would not take risks with any influential news platform controlled or owned by the Chinese Communist Party.

But TikTok is trying to reassure regulators that it has taken steps to ensure that the data of its 150 million US users is kept from ByteDance employees in China.

An investigation by the Wall Street Journal last January found that the informal data sharing system between US-based TikTok and China's ByteDance was 'flawed'. As a result, important people's information was also exposed. For example, ByteDance staff in China accessed a journalist's data to find their sources, which has raised concerns.

After Wednesday's vote, a TikTok spokesperson accused lawmakers of blocking the bill with "injunctions." This is what they call the 'secret' process.