Today, Wednesday 13 March 2024, the House of Representatives of the USA voted in favor of a bill that would require a ByteDancethe owner of TikTokto sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States.
TikTok, the US Parliament has decided: either ByteDance sells or the ban comes
The vote saw a overwhelming 352 in favor and only 65 against. The bill offers a ByteDance 165 days to divest from TikTok, otherwise ai Online shopincluding the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, would be legally prohibited from hosting the app.
ByteDance has faced ban attempts before, including one from the former president Donald Trump in 2020. Legislative action represents one of the most concrete threats to TikTok, due to allegations of collect sensitive user data and censor political content. TikTok has denied those allegations.
However, the last word has not yet been said. The Guardian reports that the bill’s future is less certain in the Senate, with some Democrats expressing concerns about it freedom of word. However, the White House supported the passage of the law: the support appears bipartisan.
It should be underlined that, according to the authors of the bill, this it’s not a banbut an opportunity to ByteDance to sell TikTok and avoid a ban in the United States. Although it seems quite clear that the US is not leaving the company any room to maneuver in case it doesn’t want to sell.
TikTok has harshly criticized the bill. “This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban on TikTok in the United States. The government is trying to deprive 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression.” TikTok also points out that this will hurt businesses and creators.
According to American analysts, although the bill was written with TikTok in mind, it could also have implications for other Chinese-owned platforms, such as WeChat Of Tencent. We will keep you updated on the development of this situation – also to understand whether a similar move could come from Europe.
