Divest or get banned! Biden signs US TikTok ban into law

TikTok vows to fight “unconstitutional” US ban

US President Joe Biden, has signed into law a new package of national security measures that include a law that could ban TikTok in the US. TikTok is a short form video platform owned by the China-based company ByteDance. The US’ “TikTok ban”, gives ByteDance 270 days to divest or face a total ban in the US. However, a 90-day extension may be given at the president’s digression.

ByteDance, and by extension TikTok, are considered to be “controlled by a foreign adversary”. This is due to the control that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has over companies within the nation. The USA’ “TikTok ban” can also apply to other applications that have more than 1 million active users and meet certain criteria.

TikTok has responded to the signing by calling the law unconstitutional. Below is TikTok’s full statement;

This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep US data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation.

The United States government hopes that this new law will force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US company. This would allow TikTok to continue operating inside the US as normal.

The US fears that ByteDance, and threfore TikTok, is beholden to the Chinese government. As such, the sale of TikTok to another company would remove this concern. The Chinese government has strict control over the social media platforms that are available within its borders. Above all, this highlights that China has similar concerns about foreign social media platforms. Thus, it is somewhat hypocritical for a Chinese company to argue that banning a foreign social is wrong?

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