- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
US lawmakers advance bill on banning TikTok
A panel of US lawmakers voted Wednesday to advance a bill that would make it easier to ban Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok, amid criticism that the proposal threatens free speech.
The Deterring America's Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act passed the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee on a party-line vote but faces opposition from free speech campaigners and Democrats when it comes up for votes in the full House and Senate.
"My bill mandates the administration to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten US national security," said the committee's chairman Michael McCaul.
"And make no mistake -- TikTok is a security threat. It allows (China) to manipulate and monitor its users while it gobbles up Americans' data to be used for their malign activities."
TikTok is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, which is being scrutinized in multiple countries over privacy and surveillance concerns.
The legislation aims to counter a 1980s amendment barring the government from restricting the free flow of visual entertainment between foreign countries by making an exception for "sensitive personal data."
It requires the administration to impose penalties -- up to and including bans -- on companies determined to have knowingly given TikTok's user data to "any foreign person" with links to the Chinese Communist Party.
A TikTok official said the company was "disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward" in Congress.
"A US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide," spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement.
In a letter sent to the committee on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the legislation would violate the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans.
D.Moore--AMWN