New Delhi: US President Joe Biden Wednesday signed into law a landmark bill that gives the Chinese video app TikTok a tough choice: sell or be banned. TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean businessman, has hit back, arguing that the law contradicts American values and freedom of speech.
Under this new law, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, has about nine months to “divest its ownership” — that is, sell the app to a buyer in the US — or face a ban.
With this new move, the US has joined a growing list of countries that have taken action against the app, including India, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and Belgium.
TikTok is a video-sharing app popular among American youngsters — of its one billion active users worldwide, over 150 million are American users. The popular app was developed by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing.
The app has come under increasing scrutiny, especially as the parent company is under Chinese law and is obligated to make the app’s data available to the Chinese government on request.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s CEO released a statement criticising the law. “Make no mistake, this is a ban, a ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice,” Chew said in a video statement Wednesday.
Our CEO Shou Chew's response to the TikTok ban: pic.twitter.com/l0RAPJMobK
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) April 24, 2024
Despite his strong stance on China, and even wanting to ban TikTok during his presidency, former US President Donald Trump, who is running for a second term this year, opposed the legislation, arguing that blocking the app would benefit Meta (previously Facebook).
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” he told CNBC last month.
TikTok has had a rocky road in the US and has been facing increasing scrutiny, especially in light of the fraught ties between the US and China. A report last month by the US-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) pointed out that even if TikTok is “declared clean” by an app store, users are voluntarily downloading Chinese software into their devices for which they have “minimal or no insight”.
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What does the law say?
The bill for taking action against TikTok was first passed in the US House of Representatives on 14 March. Known as the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Ac’”, it was passed in the lower house of the US Congress with an overwhelming majority of 352 to 65 votes.
This same bill was passed in the Senate Wednesday as part of a larger bill on sanctions against Russia, Iran, and for other purposes. The section on TikTok fell under Division D of the bill titled ‘21st Century Peace through Strength Act’.
In terms of voting, 174 Democratic senators were in favour and 33 against, while 186 Republican senators were in favour while 25 were against. This is largely an even voting pattern across the two major political parties, given this was a bipartisan piece legislation drafted by Republican lawmaker Mike Gallagher and Indian-origin Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi — both of whom serve on the House Select Committee on China.
In 2022, Krishnamoorthi said it was imperative not to “allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponised against us”.
As stipulated under the new law, if ByteDance does not find a buyer in the US within nine months, app stores like Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store won’t be allowed to host TikTok.
The version passed in the House of Representatives gave ByteDance 180 days or about six months to sell but the law passed in the Senate has offered a six-month deadline.
The law also calls for action against any subsidiary of the “successor” of ByteDance and TikTok.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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