House passes bill saying ByteDance must sell or spin off TikTok or face a ban

AppleInsider

The US House of Representatives has passed a combination bill related to sanctions on other countries, such as Russia that includes language that could force the sale or divestiture of TikTok.

Legislators have framed the measure in such a way as to downplay concerns about a ban on the popular social service. Instead, the move aims to force Chinese company ByteDance to divest itself from TikTok, or sell it to another entity.

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi said the bill was "not really about TikTok, it's about ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok and is indisputably controlled by the Chinese Communist Party." ByteDance has repeatedly disputed that claim.

A previous measure along the same lines was passed last year. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have also proposed various measures to put pressure on ByteDance to sell the social media service.

So far, these efforts haven't mustered enough support. The last such bill the House passed on this topic remains stalled in the Senate.

However, the new proposal is part of a larger bill addressing, among other things, aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza. This will make it tougher for the Senate to reject the bill outright, or remove only the ByteDance-related sanctions.

The new bill extends the amount of time ByteDance would be allowed to divest itself or sell TikTok to a year, which has helped the measure win approval of some Democrats who found the previous six-month deadline unrealistic.

The Senate will not take up the bill immediately, as it is on recess for the Passover holiday. If the ByteDance provisions remain in the final bill and it passes the Senate, it would go to the president's desk for signature.

President Biden has already indicated that he would sign legislation forcing the sale or divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance. This does not ensure that he would sign this particular multi-faceted bill, however.



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BlueLightning

In a similar measure, some US made apps and software are banned (or in the process of being banned) in China and certain other countries.  China and Russia want use of Windows phased-out, starting with government departments and government owned enterprises.  China and Russia are likely not keen on use of Dell, HP, Apple, Cisco and other US controlled hardware.  

Dead_Pool

BlueLightning said:

In a similar measure, some US made apps and software are banned (or in the process of being banned) in China and certain other countries.  China and Russia want use of Windows phased-out, starting with government departments and government owned enterprises.  China and Russia are likely not keen on use of Dell, HP, Apple, Cisco and other US controlled hardware.  

Also, the US is apparently going to try to ban the use of Kaspersky antivirus, even by private American citizens. It looks like we’re heading for a world where each part of the world will have its own, insular computing systems.

9secondkox2

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

longfang

9secondkox2 said:

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

And I should care why? Chinese, American, all of you are spying.

9secondkox2

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

And I should care why? Chinese, American, all of you are spying.

Basically it works like this: Civilian Americans care about Americans being spied on by adversarial nations - the same nations that force American companies to hand over all data traffic to said governments in order to enable censure and spying on not only its own citizens, but those they communicate with.

longfang

9secondkox2 said:

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

And I should care why? Chinese, American, all of you are spying.

Basically it works like this: Civilian Americans care about Americans being spied on by adversarial nations - the same nations that force American companies to hand over all data traffic to said governments in order to enable censure and spying on not only its own citizens, but those they communicate with.

I asked why I should care. Makes no difference to me what happens to muricans. 

blastdoor

This does not ensure that he would sign this particular multi-faceted bill, however.

He will sign the bill — guaranteed. The Ukraine aid is desperately needed. 

baconstang

What will so many TTs do?

Maybe something useful?   JK.

zeus423

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

And I should care why? Chinese, American, all of you are spying.

Basically it works like this: Civilian Americans care about Americans being spied on by adversarial nations - the same nations that force American companies to hand over all data traffic to said governments in order to enable censure and spying on not only its own citizens, but those they communicate with.

I asked why I should care. Makes no difference to me what happens to muricans. 

Ditto your way

dominikhoffmann

Will this affect Telegram?

I could see the U.S. government wanting to use this bill to shut it down, “because it is controlled by Russia,” when it was merely founded is owned by a Russian who is now an expat residing in Dubai. The government could then simply wait to be sued in court.

Are we heading into an era, where each nation or politically aligned bloc has it’s own firewall?

sbdude

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

And I should care why? Chinese, American, all of you are spying.

Basically it works like this: Civilian Americans care about Americans being spied on by adversarial nations - the same nations that force American companies to hand over all data traffic to said governments in order to enable censure and spying on not only its own citizens, but those they communicate with.

I asked why I should care. Makes no difference to me what happens to muricans. 

I think you answered your own stupid question. Begs the question of what you're doing on an American website and an American forum.

longfang

sbdude said:

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

longfang said:

9secondkox2 said:

Tik tok is basically heavily invasive spyware on behalf of China. 

It literally crawls your entire device and sends the data back home. 

Yikes. 

Good that it is either banned or sold to someone who must comply with consumer protections. 

And I should care why? Chinese, American, all of you are spying.

Basically it works like this: Civilian Americans care about Americans being spied on by adversarial nations - the same nations that force American companies to hand over all data traffic to said governments in order to enable censure and spying on not only its own citizens, but those they communicate with.

I asked why I should care. Makes no difference to me what happens to muricans. 

I think you answered your own stupid question. Begs the question of what you're doing on an American website and an American forum.

Are you implying that only views that agree with American ones are valid? How “open-minded” of you /S

chasm

I’d be interested to see some kind of study or evidence that could establish whether TikTok data sold to China is somehow different than the data Google and Meta sell to literally anyone, China included.