TikTok prohibition vote in House committee

(RT) ⸻ The House Foreign Affairs Committee has advanced a measure that would grant President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok and other Chinese-owned social media apps. The measure, proposed by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, would allow the president to impose sanctions on TikTok and its developer, ByteDance, while banning the app and any other applications "subject to the influence of China." The bill will need to be passed by the entire House of Representatives and Senate before it can become law. The Biden administration has already banned federal employees from using TikTok on government devices, and both the Canadian government and European Commission have imposed similar bans in recent months. The recent focus on TikTok by US officials and lawmakers comes amid a growing tide of anti-China sentiment in Washington. President Biden has called the US' recognition of Taiwan as Chinese territory into question on multiple occasions over the last year, while the Pentagon is reportedly quadrupling its military garrison and expanding its training mission on the island. McCaul's committee also held a hearing on combating Chinese "aggression," during which members passed a resolution aimed at stripping China of its 'developing country' status, a designation that subjects it to looser rules under multilateral treaties.