Why the United States could ban TikTok again and what is ByteDance, the parent company in China?

The United States is threatening to ban TikTok across the country and there will be a House vote on Wednesday. If this sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve been here once before. When Donald Trump was president, his administration backed a deal to have Walmart and Oracle take a large stake in the social media platform, meaning Oracle would be responsible for all the U.S. TikTok users’ data. The sale was never finalized as the 2020 elections began and Trump’s orders got held up in court. When President Joe Biden was elected, he reversed the order and dropped the legal proceedings. However, Biden now says he is in favor of a bill that would ban TikTok if the parent company, China’s ByteDance, does not give up power, and Trump is now opposed.

Bill to ban TikTok to be voted on Wednesday

TikTok is used by more than 170 million people in the United States and has become one of the most popular social media platforms of today. The bill to decide whether or not to ban TikTok will be voted on by the House on Wednesday, with the U.S. allowing the opportunity to keep TikTok going, so long as China is willing to give up ownership. That means that the U.S. president would need to determine that TikTok is “no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary”. The options are for current Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell or face a full-on ban throughout the United States.

There are a few interested parties in buying Tiktok. Amongst them is Canadian investor and businessman Kevin O’Leary. However, it’s not going to be as easy as it sounds. There is currently a six-month deadline to make the sale, meaning whoever buys it needs to be both ready to buy it right away, and get the deal done quickly. The big tech companies who have the money may not be up to the task of taking on 170 million users. The Biden administration has already sued Meta, Google, and Amazon for antitrust violations and are investigating Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI. Then, the Chinese government would need to approve the sale. Last year, they had said they are in strong opposition. It’s also highly unlikely that ByteDance will be willing to sell TikTok even if the government does approve it. They have reportedly vowed to do everything possible to challenge the United States before they even consider a sale.

While there is a good chance the bill could pass the House on Wednesday, it would still need to pass the Senate, which won’t be so simple. As Biden has said he’s in favor, we know that he would finalize the bill if it gets that far. If the bill indeed does become law, internet services would be prohibited from hosting the app, and it would be unavailable in the U.S. app store, which could signify a great reduction in the cost to buy it. Matt Perault, the director of the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy, which gets funding from TikTok and other tech companies, said that would be one of the biggest factors of the law.

“As you approach that 180-day clock, the pressure on the company to sell or risk being banned entirely would be high, which would mean probably the acquirers could get it at a lower price,” said Perault.

Why does the U.S. want to ban TikTok?

Considering how many American users are on the platform and the amount of hours they spend on it on average (between 60-80 minutes a day), United States intelligence chiefs have warned that the Chinese government could be using it as a tool to undermine American democracy. Another concern is that Beijing, under national security laws, could force ByteDance to give access to all of the data of the American users at any given time if they need it for intelligence gathering. TikTok has said that it has not and would not do such a thing.

“Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok - children’s data, adults’ data - to be staying here in America or going to China?,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Concerns over first Amendment rights

Many, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are concerned that a ban on the app would pose a threat to the First Amendment rights of the users. Many TikTok users have been contacting their representatives to protest against a ban. The argument the U.S. government would likely use against this being a violation of the First Amendment would be that national security outweighs the First Amendment. In May, Montana became the first U.S. state to sign legislation banning TikTok and was sued for violations of the First Amendment, with the judge eventually ruling in favor of TikTok. The ban was blocked before it took effect.