The law to force the sale of TikTok to an American company or have to close it passed its last two procedures between Tuesday night, when it was approved by the Senate, and with the subsequent signature, yesterday, of the president of the United States, Joe Biden , which validates the rule and opens a countdown for the regulations to come into force, which could range from nine months to a year, although it is likely to take much longer until the matter has an end.
The approval of the law following presidential validation does not mean the immediate ban of TikTok, which has 170 million users in the United States. The application belongs to the Chinese company ByteDance, which is willing to fight in court. Michael Beckerman, head of public policy for the Americas at TikTok, sent a statement to employees last Saturday in which he assured them that “this is the beginning, not the end of this long process.” The company will legally challenge the legislative measure.
The approved bill states that ByteDance has nine months to find a buyer, although it has a good chance that the president will grant it a three-month extension. For about a year, the Chinese company will have to look for a buyer, not an easy task for such a popular app. Only big technology companies would have the capital to take over the video company. For example, Meta and Google, although in both cases it would be difficult for the acquisition to pass antitrust requirements. Apple does have the liquidity to undertake a purchase of this type and would not have that handicap, because it does not have social networks, but it seems that TikTok is very far from the principles of its business model.
One of the promoters of the legal action on the video platform, Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, stated that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok, or any other individual company. Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, malign operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our Government personnel.” China has also announced that it is going to fight this veto against one of its emblematic companies.
One of the great paradoxes of the whole matter is that, while the Biden Administration has kept its distance from TikTok, the president has finally opened an account on the video platform for his electoral campaign. No less disconcerting has been the role of former president and new Republican candidate Donald Trump. During his time in the White House, he signed executive orders to ban TikTok, Alipay and WeChat, all apps of Chinese origin. The legal challenges filed by the apps prevented them from coming into force.
Instead, Trump now blames Biden for closing the app. “Just so everyone knows, especially young people, Crooked – fraudulent – Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” Trump posted on his own social network, Truth Social, last Monday. “He is the one who is pushing for it to close, and he does it to help his Facebook friends become richer and more dominant, and to be able to continue fighting, perhaps illegally, against the Republican Party,” the former president accused.
Last year, Montana state lawmakers voted to ban TikTok, but a federal judge blocked the law, arguing that it “likely violates the First Amendment” of the Constitution, which prohibits the passage of any law that impedes freedom. expression. If the company were to be sold, should it be entirely or just the US part? How to get them not to share your recommendation algorithm?
TikTok has 7,000 employees in the United States. A study commissioned by the company from Oxford Economics ensures that the app boosts the economic growth of more than seven million companies and the US economy as a whole, contributing to generating more than $24 billion in gross domestic product (GDP). and more than 224,000 jobs in the country.
