The wildly popular social media app “TikTok” was dealt a devastating blow by a Federal appeals court. Legislation was signed into law by President Joe Biden that forces the app to divest away from the Chinese-owned “ByteDance” or face a complete ban in the United States. If ByteDance sells the US version of TikTok to a non-Chinese owned company, most likely American, then they will not be banned. The reasoning behind such legislation is fears of Chinese data harvesting. Chinese companies are all influenced and controlled to a certain extent by the Chinese Communist Party. The United States behaves in a similar fashion with US-based companies through legislation and regulation.
The goal of the law is to remove TikTok from Chinese Communist Party influence and place it into US Government influence. Data harvesting is a serious concern but the bigger concern is national security. If China wanted to harm US citizens, they could simply release propaganda through a subtly manipulative algorithm. Opponents of the law say that it violates the First Amendment and such a precedent is dangerous because it could be used against other companies that simply run afoul of the Government without actually committing any crimes.
There is another way that TikTok could be saved aside from selling to a US-based company. The TikTok “ban” is slated to take place on January 19th, 2025, just one day before Trump becomes inaugurated. Trump has previously stated his intentions to ban the app, but he has done a 180 in recent times, citing concerns of META monopolizing the market after one of its chief competitors goes away. Trump could save the app by lobbying the Republican-controlled Congress to repeal the law. He could also direct the incoming Attorney General, most likely Pam Bondi, to refuse to enforce the law.
SOURCES:
Court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok – YouTube
Law banning TikTok in the US could take effect in January – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Federal appeals court rejects TikTok’s bid to overturn US ban – ABC News
Federal appeals court upholds law that could ban TikTok, say platform could be unavailable in U.S.
TikTok ban: Federal appeals court upholds legislation
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