The wildly popular video app TikTok might be blocked from U.S. app stores if the House passes a law that makes its sale mandatory within a year.
A prior version of the TikTok law was connected to a major package of aid and national security bills that supported Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The House had previously passed this version by an overwhelming vote last month.
Everything about the prospect of banning a worldwide powerful app because to its ties to China is clouded in mystery, from the possible political fallout and legal hurdles to the nature of any forced sales that may occur. It also brings up a bunch of new questions for the federal government.
What’s the Senate’s next move?
The package of aid laws, which includes the TikTok clause, will go to the Senate for further consideration after Saturday’s vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that he expects this legislation to pass, since it is a priority for him.
Midway through March, the Senate Commerce Committee allowed the TikTok bill that had previously cleared the House to stall. On the other hand, this version was revised after discussions with influential senators, such as Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, to ensure its legal strength.
It allays certain constitutional worries in the Senate by extending the deadline for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to find a buyer to one year instead of six months.
Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is one possible obstacle. He may potentially filibuster the TikTok measure and the broader aid package, both of which he has been opposed to from the beginning. If that happened, Schumer would have no choice but to call for a roll call vote on the measure by invoking cloture, which requires 60 votes.
In what position does the government find itself?
The bill has the support of President Joe Biden, who has promised to sign it into law.
He briefed members on national security matters, including the months-long process of drafting the measure in secret with House bill co-sponsors, and discussed the risks that the Chinese government could pose by accessing data from the Beijing-based ByteDance.
After nearly four years of unsuccessful presidential attempts to remove TikTok from ByteDance, Biden is anticipated to sign it if it passes the Senate.
I don’t get what the issue is with TikTok.
The enormous popularity of TikTok and the ownership’s connections to China are major national security issues, according to Bill’s advocates in Congress and the White House. They claim that the Chinese government uses the app’s algorithms to spread propaganda and that the Chinese government can legally request user data from ByteDance regarding Americans under Chinese national security law. China allegedly manipulated the 2022 midterm elections through the video-sharing platform TikTok, according to a report from the Directorate General of National Intelligence.
In a January congressional testimony, TikTok CEO Shou Chew stated that the firm has not received any requests to share user data with the Chinese government and would refuse to comply with such requests.
The TikTok bill has encountered resistance from the Chinese Embassy. It dispatched diplomats to urge lawmakers to minimize the national security risks, citing, among other things, the fact that a ban on TikTok would be bad for American investors in ByteDance.
How will TikTok proceed from here?
After the measure is passed, TikTok is likely to take legal action, claiming that the law violates the First Amendment, unfairly targets one firm, and is thus unconstitutional.
The corporation may have trouble proving its case, according to some legal analysts, and there is precedent for national security considerations superseding free expression.
According to Sarah Kreps, head of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, “national security” is one of the few factors that can circumvent free speech and constitutional problems. “Let the legislation and its constitutionality have enormous latitude if that is the argument.”
She expressed her belief that the situation would make it extremely challenging for TikTok or anyone attempting to suit to achieve victory.
Is it affordable to anyone?
The first person to publicly show interest was former Trump Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, who announced last month that he was forming an investor group to acquire TikTok.
However, there are a lot of factors, including price, that would make a sale difficult. Valuing TikTok, a completely owned subsidiary, is no easy task. But if it were its own entity, it might easily become a highly valuable technology platform on a global scale. As of March 2023, ByteDance was valued at $220 billion, as reported by PitchBook.
Last month, Dan Ives, a managing director at wealth management firm Wedbush Securities, projected that TikTok could sell for $40 billion without the app’s algorithm source code and $100 billion with it.
Anyone with a sizable enough budget to buy it would very certainly encounter antitrust issues.
Where does China stand?
The most valuable aspect of TikTok is its algorithm, but the Chinese government has stated that it “firmly opposes” any forced sale of the software and will not permit its export.
“You can buy the name but you can’t buy the technology,” said Jim Lewis, a senior vice president at the research tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Thus, we have an insurmountable obstacle on our hands. Let them pass the measure. It won’t, however, save us from our predicament.
Already there have been some possible retaliatory effects, and a forced TikTok sale might make things far worse with the world’s leading power. On Friday, China allegedly demanded that Apple remove Meta’s WhatsApp and Threads from the app store. Considering that both apps are already technically forbidden in China, the move was mainly symbolic, but it does hint at the possibility of stricter measures.