In what seemingly came out of nowhere, but at the same time a process long in the making, a bill getting closer to the ban of TikTok flew through the House of Representatives this past Wednesday. In a startling speed of bipartisan agreement, the TikTok bill targets the app’s parent company, ByteDance, in a way that has never really been done on U.S. soil before. ByteDance, which is originally a Chinese-based company, has a large stake in TikTok still. The bill has asked ByteDance to sell their shares of the company or risk a ban on national grounds.
TikTok has flamed the news as of late, with its CEO Shou Zi Chew in the news last month during Senate hearings. Chew, alongside other prominent social media companies such as Meta and Snapchat, was berated by a number of Senators, most notably Arkansas’ Tom Cotton, who repeatedly asked Chew if he had Chinese communist ties. Chew, who is Singaporean, repeatedly denied these accusations.
TikTok has spent over $1 billion on Project Texas, a plan that has partnered with a private-based company named Oracle. It has worked on complying with internet safety and data privacy laws, something that TikTok has been under fire for. The national government though still has its doubts on the platform and whether or not it can shrug off the “Chinese influence” that it says TikTok has.
It will be interesting to see what direction the Senate takes in passing the bill, although they have little intentions to quickly force the bill.
Sources:
Image Credits: NBC News
