A countdown is now underway for Tiktok: According to a US law, the app is threatened with extinction in the country if it still belongs to the China-based Bytedance group in a year. Tiktok wants to defend itself.
A US law that is intended to force a change of ownership of the short video app Tiktok has come into force. President Joe Biden signed it on Wednesday. Tiktok is threatened with banishment from American app stores if the app is still owned by the China-based Bytedance Group in a year. Tiktok wants to challenge the law in court.
The law was only passed by the Senate on Wednesday night with a large majority of 79 votes to 18. Bytedance is viewed across all parties in the USA as a Chinese company that must bow to the will of the Chinese Communist Party. That’s why there are warnings that Chinese authorities could gain large-scale access to data from American users – and also use the platform for political influence. Tiktok has been denying this for years.
It is unclear whether the law can stand up in US courts. An earlier threat to ban it failed there and a similar law in the state of Montana was recently shelved due to possible violations of the freedom of expression enshrined in the US Constitution.
Tiktok wants to go to court
According to its own information, Tiktok has 170 million users in the USA. Company boss Shou Chew called the law unconstitutional in a video and announced that Tiktok would go to court.
Tiktok emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60 percent owned by Western investors. The company headquarters are on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. However, US politicians counter that the Chinese founders maintained control thanks to higher voting rights with a share of 20 percent and that Bytedance’s headquarters are in Beijing, where they cannot escape the influence of the authorities.
China’s Foreign Ministry referred to previous statements. Beijing had accused the USA of wanting to hinder competitive companies in other countries under the pretext of national security. China’s government has never asked companies to illegally collect or provide data for them and will not do so, said spokesman Wang Wenbin in mid-March.
In a quandary
The law puts Biden’s Democrats in a quandary: On the one hand, the president wants to take a tough position towards China, and on the other hand, the app is popular with young users, whose votes he needs for re-election in November. Biden’s campaign team only opened a Tiktok account this year.
During his term as US President, Donald Trump already tried to enforce a sale of Tiktok’s US business to American investors by decree. But the plan failed primarily because US courts saw the plans as a violation of freedom of expression and an overreach of power by the president. As a law, the current initiative stands on a more solid legal basis. The Republican Trump, who wants to be re-elected in November, has now backed away from calls for a ban.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
