President Joe Biden just signed off on the foreign aid package that recently passed through the House and Senate. Normally, this would mean nothing to us here at AndroidHeadlines. However, there is an interesting tidbit in that bill.
This bill also includes a TikTok ban. Basically, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has a year to divest its ownership in the app, or the app will be banned in the US. This means that the divest-or-ban bill is now law in the United States.
ByteDance will have the initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president does have the ability to extend that another three months if there’s enough progress.
Initially, it looked like this bill would stall out in the Senate. However, the House bundled it in with foreign aid to US allies, which forced the Senate to pick it up sooner than expected. The longer divestment period for ByteDance also helped get some other lawmakers on board.
What’s next for TikTok?
Now that the bill is law, what’s next for TikTok? Well, TikTok’s spokesperson, Alex Haurek, said in a statement that the company is planning to challenge the law in the courts. This could ultimately extend the timeline should the courts delay enforcement pending a resolution.
Another question for this new law is how China will respond. That includes if it would let ByteDance sell TikTok and, more importantly, let it sell its important algorithm that keeps users coming back to the app.
Haurek said, “As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired.”
There has been some speculation about who ByteDance could sell TikTok to. Keep in mind that TikTok is a pretty major app these days, so there are not a lot of companies that would even have the money to purchase the platform. However, some names that have floated around include Microsoft and, more recently, Shopify.
Why does the US Government want TikTok to be sold?
The US government, specifically the US House and Senate, have been trying to ban TikTok for years. Many believe that it threatens national security because of all of the information that TikTok is collecting from Americans. The government also believes that China is using TikTok to influence the US public and interfere in elections covertly.
TikTok has already been banned in India, as well as a few smaller governments and militaries banning it from devices. The real question is, why is all of this attention on TikTok and not Facebook or Google? Who do basically the same thing. The answer is, those are American companies, so it’s okay. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company – but based in Singapore – and therefore it is not okay.
