Biden will ban TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells it
After a vote in the Senate tied to foreign aid late on Tuesday, President Biden will sign into law a requirement for ByteDance to sell or divest its TikTok platform within a year.
TikTok could be banned in the US
The combination bill including a potential TikTok ban was approved first by the House of Representatives, and now also by the Senate. President Biden says he will sign it into law on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
According to Reuters, the legislation mandates that TikTok will be banned if ByteDance does not divest its ownership within nine months. There is a possible extension of a further three months if a deal is still in progress.
The US government's stated concern is that ByteDance is a Chinese company and therefore the country's government could access the data of US TikTok users. ByteDance continues to insist that it has never and would never pass data to China's government.
"For years we've allowed the Chinese Communist party to control one of the most popular apps in America that was dangerously shortsighted," Senator Marco Rubio told Reuters. "A new law is going to require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good move for America."
The Senate voted 79 to 18 in favor of the bill. It was attached to the measure to provide $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Senator Ed Markey said that while the law was phrased so as to require ByteDance to divest, it was really still about banning TikTok.
"We should be very clear about the likely outcome of this law... it's really just a TikTok ban," he said. "Censorship is not who we are as a people. We should not downplay or deny this trade-off."
ByteDance has not yet commented publicly on the Senate's approval of the legislation, or of President Biden saying he will sign it into law. However, Reuters reports that the company told TikTok staff that it will quickly protest the case in court.
The US government's aim to ban TikTok began in 2020 with former President Trump. He is presently, though, claiming to be against banning it.
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Comments
BS -- on both points. They would turn over date in a heartbeat if the CCP demanded it. And they've misused and shared U.S. user data in the past despite their numerous statements to the contrary. The CCP doesn't allow TikTok in China for a reason.
Right now, companies like Meta surreptitiously harvest data and use it for targeted advertising. Not ideal, but not a direct threat to national security.
Tik-Tok, on the other hand, surreptitiously harvests data and sends it to the CCP for purposes unknown (but reasonably presumed harmful).
so the CCP knows I like big knockers and cars?
im ok with that
so it's not like our personal data is safe with American companies either.
remember, YOU are the product of any social media company, not FB, Instagram etc
the US would have lost its marbles
free competition! Fair trade rules! government intervention by the communists! etc etc
guess all that lobbying money spent by AIPAC and Amazon paid off
It's purely hypothetical.
Again, China doesn't even allow Tik Tok in China. It's telling the lengths The CCP will go to to prop up the app abroad while disallowing it at home. That tells us that the original ban by the Trump administration should have been better implemented to restrict or outright ban TikTok in 2020.