United States officials have warned about the risks of the popular social media platform TikTok for years. Now, a new law will give the government the authority to act on these warnings by banning one of the most popular apps in America.
But this doesn't mean TikTok will be banned immediately. At least, not yet.
Congress passed legislation on April 21 that acts as an ultimatum to ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant and TikTok's parent company – to sell to a company that isn't Chinese within one year or so, or face a ban on the app in the United States.
President Joe Biden has signed the bill into law, but TikTok could still challenge the new law in court.
According to legal experts, a potential ban as it is written may violate Americans' First Amendment rights by outlawing an app they use for free expression. They also warned that the government may be overstepping the Constitution by targeting a single company that it disapproves of.
Earlier attempts to ban Chinese apps including TikTok have stalled in the courts. This recent attempt is the closest that America has come to kicking out an app used by an estimated 170 million Americans. (Related: House committee passes bill ordering TikTok to divest from the CCP.)
ByteDance also offers other apps in U.S. digital app stores that fall under the same provisions impacting TikTok. Here is a list of other ByteDance-owned apps and other products that could be affected by the ban:
- 8th Note Press – A digital publishing platform
- BytePlus – A cloud-based storage and computing service
- CapCut – A video editing app popular among TikTok content creators
- Gauth – An artificial intelligence-powered homework assistant
- Hypic – A ByteDance-owned photo editing app
- Lark – A software product similar to Microsoft‘s Office productivity suite
- Lemon8 – A social media app with features similar to Pinterest
- SoundOn – An app that pairs with TikTok and allows users to distribute original music creations
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When will the ban take effect?
The new law gives TikTok 270 days, or around nine months, to sell to another company, with provisions for a 90-day extension if "significant progress" is being made to divest the app from its Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked parent company.
During the specified period, TikTok would probably continue to operate normally in America. The 270-day timeline implies that TikTok users can still access the app beyond the November presidential election.
The timeline in the original House bill was only 180 days, which could have shut down TikTok at least one month ahead of the election.
Lawsuits could extend the proposed timeline or junk a ban entirely. While TikTok could sell the app instead, the odds may not be great.
In the past, China's government has announced that it would strongly oppose a forced sale of the famous app.
At the same time, a purchase of TikTok would cost at least tens of billions of dollars. Not many people or companies can afford that.
And while there are companies that do, such as Meta or Google, they probably won't try to buy TikTok because it's doubtful that antitrust regulators would allow it.
In the past, many U.S. officials have voiced concerns about how China's government can force TikTok to send data from Americans' smartphones or manipulate the videos that users watch on TikTok toward the preferences of the CCP.
These officials also claimed that the best way to eliminate the national security risk is to force ByteDance to sell the U.S. version of TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or ban the app in America entirely.
Additionally, the officials concerned about TikTok warned that it is a unique risk to U.S. national security. The popular app is used by almost 50 percent of Americans, and it functions like a TikTok-programmed nationwide TV channel that could influence Americans' views about important events like the upcoming elections.
Legislators have also questioned TikTok’s CEO and other executives over the alarming spread of child sexual abuse material through their apps and the potential harm to children’s mental health from social media use.
Visit BigTech.news for more stories about TikTok and other social media platforms.
Watch the video below as one TikTok star sounds off in favor of divesting the app from CCP influence.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Europe hits TikTok with $368 million fine for mishandling children’s personal info.
TikTok ban bill could lead to broader surveillance and censorship by the U.S. government.
TikTok pressured to ban all truth and push only official narratives.
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