US moves to force ByteDance to sell TikTok2024-04-24 08:08 by DanielaTags: TikTok, ByteDance
The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would restrict the video app TikTok, a historic development in government regulation of social media that's on track to quickly become law. Tucked into a $95 billion foreign aid package, the legislation will give TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, up to a year to sell the app. If they don't, it would be banned from U.S. app stores and web hosting companies. TikTok says the Chinese government hasn't requested American users' data, and that it would not hand it over if they did. They also argue that the legislation violates Americans' right to free speech, and that banning the app would harm small businesses who rely on the app for exposure. So far, there has been no public evidence that the app is being used to spy on U.S. citizens, but reporting from multiple outlets have indicated TikTok's American operation has struggled to fully separate from its Chinese parent company. The four-year battle over TikTok, which is used by 170 million people in the United States, is just one front in a war over the internet and technology between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Apple said Beijing had ordered it to remove Meta Platforms' WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns. TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds and TikTok users are also expected to again take legal action. A U.S. judge in Montana in November blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free speech grounds. Read more -here-
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