TikTok has to break away from its Chinese parent company ByteDance in the USA. The US Senate voted late Tuesday (local time) for an ultimatum that would require the popular short video app to sell its US assets within nine months or be banned. It is unclear whether the plan can stand up in US courts. An earlier threat to ban it failed there.
“For years, we allowed the Chinese Communist Party to control one of America’s most popular apps, and that was dangerously short-sighted,” said Senator Marco Rubio. “A new law will force the Chinese owner to sell the app. That’s good for America,” said the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. TikTok did not initially respond to a Reuters request for comment, but had already announced legal action against the law over the weekend.
The law was passed by the Senate on Wednesday night with a large majority of 79 to 18 votes. Bytedance is viewed across all parties in the USA as a Chinese company that must bow to the will of the Chinese Communist Party. That’s why there are warnings that Chinese authorities could gain large-scale access to data from American users – and also use the platform for political influence. TikTok has denied this for years.
The law, which was passed for the second time in the House of Representatives a few days ago, is this time part of a package that, among other things, is intended to make new aid possible for Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia. That’s why it got through the Senate quickly on the second attempt.
The law puts Biden’s Democrats in a quandary: On the one hand, the president wants to take a tough position towards China, and on the other hand, the app is popular among young users, whose votes he needs for re-election in November. Biden’s campaign team only opened a TikTok account this year.
TikTok emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60 percent owned by Western investors. The company headquarters are on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. However, US politicians counter that the Chinese founders, with a share of 20 percent, maintained control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance’s headquarters are in Beijing, where they cannot escape the influence of the authorities.
TikTok claims to have 170 million users in the USA. During his term as US President, Donald Trump tried to force a sale of TikTok’s US business to American investors with threats of a ban.
But the plan failed primarily because US courts suspected the plans for a TikTok ban to violate the freedom of speech enshrined in the US Constitution. A current law in the state of Montana that was supposed to ban TikTok from the app stores there is also on hold. Trump has now backed away from calls for a ban.
2024-04-24 03:24:00