The US Senate has approved a bill requiring TikTok to be sold to US ownership or face a ban in the country, with President Joe Biden signaling his intent to sign it. The bill, part of a broader foreign aid package, aims to address concerns over Chinese influence and data privacy, despite TikTok's efforts to assure separation from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
The primary worry is TikTok's potential use as a propaganda tool by the Chinese Communist Party, given its parent company's close ties with the Chinese government. The bill's passage follows concerns raised by cybersecurity experts and other instances of Chinese influence operations on social media platforms. If signed, ByteDance will have nine months to sell TikTok to a US-based owner, potentially leading to political wrangling or a permanent ban if an agreement isn't reached. Uncertainties remain regarding TikTok's future algorithms and appeal processes, highlighting ongoing questions surrounding its operations.
Discussion (2)
In addition to the decision around tiktok, there will be other apps that get caught up in all of this that are also owned and operated by the chinese company ByteDance, such as Capcut, Lemon8, Hypic, SoundOn, Lark, and more [0]
[0] axios.com/2024/04/23/tiktok-ban-by...
It seems pretty likely that TikTok will end up being sold to a US company, considering all the political and rule-related pressure. Since the US Senate and President Biden are on board with the idea, ByteDance will probably want to play ball to avoid getting kicked out of the US altogether.