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US Congress Passes TikTok Sell-or-Ban Bill, But Legal Battles Nears

US Congress Passes TikTok Sell-or-Ban Bill - GlobalCurrent24.com

The United States Congress passes TikTok sell-or-ban bill after it was introduced to the House weeks ago.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill that would ban the video app TikTok, an unprecedented step in government regulation of social media that is expected to become law soon.

The legislation, which is part of a $95 billion foreign aid package, gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, up to a year to sell the app. If they don’t, the software will be removed from app stores and web hosting providers in the United States.

It gained overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress: the Senate adopted the package 79-18, while the House approved the TikTok element of the bill 360-58. President Joe Biden has stated that he will sign the law.

Proponents of the measure argue that the app poses a national security concern. Lawmakers, prompted by Biden administration intelligence briefings, have expressed worry about the likelihood of the Chinese government spying on Americans and distributing propaganda via the app. Approximately 170 million Americans utilize the platform.

“We are giving people a choice here: to improve this platform and have the opportunity for Americans to make sure that they are not being maligned by our foreign adversaries,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, on Thursday.

TikTok claims that the Chinese government has not demanded American users’ data and would not send it over if it did. They also claim that the measure violates Americans’ right to free speech and that banning the app will affect small businesses who rely on it for publicity.

So far, there is no public evidence that the app is being used to spy on Americans, but reports from numerous publications suggest TikTok’s American division has failed to totally decouple from its Chinese parent firm.

Now that Congress has adopted the legislation, TikTok is expected to challenge it in court. That has worked in the past; former President Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok, which was blocked by a federal judge. Recently, a federal judge in Montana blocked a state prohibition, stating that it “likely violates the First Amendment.”

If ByteDance is compelled to comply, the sale will be tricky. TikTok is valued in tens of billions of dollars, thus it is likely that only the wealthiest investors can afford it. That might include major technology companies such as Meta, Google, and Amazon. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has also announced that he is organizing investors to bid on the app.

However, the Chinese government would most likely prevent the sale of TikTok’s algorithm, forcing any acquirer to rebuild a critical component of the program.

According to a Pew Research poll issued last December, 38% of Americans support banning TikTok, 27% oppose it, and 35% are unsure. This is down from 50% who believed Congress should get rid of the app in March of last year.