TikTok Facing Potential US Ban as Congress Passes Bill Requiring Sale

[MacRumors]

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that will either ban TikTok from app stores operating in the country or force Chinese company ByteDance to sell the short-form video app.

The landmark bill has now passed both chambers of Congress, having already been approved by the House of Representatives. President Biden says he will sign the bill into law on Wednesday.

Once that happens, TikTok will be banned in the United States if ByteDance does not divest ownership within nine months, with a possible three-month extension to that deadline if a deal is in progress. China would need to approve any sale, but the Chinese government has already made it clear that it will "firmly oppose" such a move.

ByteDance is also expected to launch a legal challenge against the bill by arguing that it will deprive the app's 170 million U.S. users of their First Amendment rights protecting freedom of speech.

U.S. lawmakers want TikTok to be sold to a company outside of China over concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data from users located in the United States. If Beijing made the request, ByteDance would not be able to refuse. There have also been suggestions that Chinese authorities could use TikTok to spread political propaganda.

ByteDance has attempted to alleviate these fears by storing data from U.S. users on servers owned by Oracle, but the White House and lawmakers do not believe that is enough. There are a limited number of companies that would be able to afford TikTok, while most tech giants would likely be prevented from acquiring it due to antitrust concerns.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: TikTok Facing Potential US Ban as Congress Passes Bill Requiring Sale

 

[repoman016]

I really want to delete tiktok because its too. damn. good. Who cares if its listening, I swear it even knows what I'm THINKING sometimes!!

 

[F23]

Apple should buy it

 

[lxmeta]

Not using it and do not care about that app.
But the argument is quite iconic! US bans the app for pretty much the same legal framework that exists in the US.
No, the "but we are the good ones, so we can't do evil" does not count.

 

[DominikHoffmann]

What has me worried is that that Democrats and Republicans are almost unanimous about wanting to ban TikTok.

Will the bill be applied to Telegram in the future?

 

[klasma]

Apple should buy it

You mean so that China can keep controlling it?

 

[klasma]

But the argument is quite iconic! US bans the app for pretty much the same legal framework that exists in the US.
No, the "but we are the good ones, so we can't do evil" does not count.

And they are surprised when Europe doesn’t want its data to be stored and processed in clouds operated by US-based companies.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Good. It brings nothing positive. Just more time-wasting by scrolling through absolute garbage videos.

 

[MVMNT]

ByteDance is also expected to launch a legal challenge against the bill by arguing that it will deprive the app's 170 million U.S. users of their First Amendment rights protecting freedom of speech.

That old chestnut of delusion. You had freedom of speech before TikTok. And guess what? You still do without it.

 

[4nNtt]

It is always scary when the left and the right unite against first amendment rights. If there is any credibility to their concerns, it could be solved by requiring algorithms to be transparent. This authoritarian approach will hopefully be shot down by the courts.

 

[@Brett]

Free speech? What about the countless kids and people that have died from those stiller Tik Tok challenges?

 

[cthompson94]

I would honestly be more excited if the same thing happened to Meta and all these other social media platforms that basically do the same thing...

 

[4nNtt]

That old chestnut of delusion. You had freedom of speech before TikTok. And guess what? You still do without it.

TikTok also gets freedom of speech.

 

[FSMBP]

Free speech? What about the countless kids and people that have died from those stiller Tik Tok challenges?

Unfortunately, I do not think that is a unique trait of just Tik Tok. I remember early days of Facebook / YouTube had similar dangerous challenges. Those are here to stay...along with 'prank videos'...ugh

 

[emmab2006]

Good Ban it. its filled with lies and morons.

 

[klasma]

Free speech? What about the countless kids and people that have died from those stiller Tik Tok challenges?

I don’t think freedom of speech applies after death.

 

[klasma]

Good Ban it. its filled with lies and morons.

MacRumors forums will be next. 😛

 

[emmab2006]

Free speech? What about the countless kids and people that have died from those stiller Tik Tok challenges?

SPOT ON . the amount of children who have been killed is ridiculous. they have blood on there hands!

 

[mystery hill]

Both parties are funded by AIPAC, and they aren’t too happy with how pro-Palestine TikTok is.

Coincidentally, this TikTok ban was packaged with $26 billion in foreign aid support to Israel.

 

[Sean006]

So they let a Chinese spy balloon fly over the whole US and over our bases but I’m supposed to be concerned about china watching me watch women in bikinis all day on tik tok ? 😂😂😂

 

[4nNtt]

I don’t think freedom of speech applies after death.

It does. We don’t ban the speech of citizens. We don’t ban the speech of other nations including adversaries. We don’t ban the speech of companies. We don’t ban the speech of the deceased. There are some limited channels where we do ban speech if there is literally no other solution to an immediate threat. We certainly have not reached that point. Simply requiring the algorithms to be transparent in social media would be enough.

 

[t0rqx]

TikTok is hot and has great revenue so this is how the US forces countries to sell their inventions?

The same tactics claiming some countries have nuclear missiles, but truth is they go there for the oil.

 

[4nNtt]

Both parties are funded by AIPAC, and they aren’t too happy with how pro-Palestine TikTok is.

Coincidentally, this TikTok ban was packaged with $26 billion in foreign aid support to Israel.

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Cronyism is likely rampant in this ruling. Meta’s very dirty lobbying against TikTok probably plays a role too.

 

[ppj845]

Not a fan of TikTok. But looking forward to China tit for tat on a sale of Apple and Tesla’s China businesses on “national security grounds”. Who knows what they are doing with all those cameras 🍿

 

[clayj]

"[T]he Chinese government has already made it clear that it will 'firmly oppose' such a move."

The Chinese government can self-fornicate.