The president of USA Joe Biden signed the law that prohibits the operation of TikTok in the country if the social network operation is not sold in the next 9 months. The document, which had already been approved by the Chamber last weekend, passed the Senate on the night of Tuesday, 23rd, and was sanctioned by Biden this Wednesday, 24th. The TikTok project is also part of a financing package to send economic aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
With the law, TikTok, which belongs to a Chinese company ByteDance, will have a period of 270 days (about 9 months) to sell the platform’s operations in the USA or it will be banned from the country — the period can be extended to up to 1 year. If the sale is not completed, application stores, such as Apple’s App Store, and Google Play will no longer be able to offer the platform to users and it will become unavailable in the country.
The US government’s main allegation is concern for national security, as authorities believe that TikTok may have access to the sensitive data of American users in China — and that this information may be shared with the Chinese government.
Law providing for the sale or banning of TikTok in the USA is sanctioned Photograph: Data Ruvic/REUTERS
The decision by House Republicans last week to attach the TikTok bill to the aid package for U.S. allies helped speed its passage. The previous version of the PL gave ByteDance six months to sell its stakes in the platform. But it drew skepticism from some top lawmakers, worried that it was too short a timeframe for a complex deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.
The bill also prevents the company from controlling TikTok’s secret sauce: the algorithm that powers users’ videos based on their interests and that has turned the platform into a trend-setting phenomenon.
The platform’s CEO, Shou Chew, responded to the American government in a post on TikTok, stating that the app will not leave the country.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere,” Chew said in a video posted on the official TikTok account. “We are confident and will continue to fight for their rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we hope to prevail.”
According to The New York TimesTikTok also said in a statement that the bill “was drafted in secret, rushed through the House, and ultimately passed as part of a larger, binding bill precisely because it is a ban that Americans will consider questionable”.
In an attempt to calm lawmakers, ByteDance even created, in July 2022, an operation called Texas Project, so that American users’ data could be processed in the country, using servers in a partnership with the American company Oracle. The Texas Project cost more than $1.5 billion to implement.
In recent weeks, the company has campaigned heavily against the legislation, pressuring the app’s 170 million U.S. users — many of whom are young — to call Congress and express opposition.
Legal battle underway
Experts believe that the law should be challenged in court by the Chinese company. The company has a good case to believe that the legal challenge could still end well, having seen some success in previous legal fights over its US operations. In November, a federal judge blocked a Montana law that would have banned the use of TikTok statewide, after the company and five content creators who use the platform filed a lawsuit.
“Fortunately, we have a Constitution in this country, and people’s First Amendment rights are very important,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president of public policy, said during an interview with a content creator on the app last week, according to O Teams. “We will continue to fight for all other TikTok users.”
TikTok can appeal the decision challenging the legality of the project and trying to gain more time to reverse the situation. The process, which can take months or even years, can ensure that the social network continues in the country at least until a final decision is made.
In addition to the legal implications, ByteDance, owner of the app, could halt negotiations on the sale of the American operation due to a lack of buyers, insufficient values or the influence that the app has in the USA.
Threat since Trump
TikTok had been threatened since 2020, with lawmakers increasingly arguing that Beijing’s relationship with ByteDance creates national security risks. At the time, the then president donald trump signed an executive order to ban the app from United States. This, therefore, is the first time that Congress and the Senate have approved legislation to “expel” TikTok from the country. In 2020, when Trump threatened to ban the social network in the USA, the action would be carried out by a decree signed directly by the president himself.
One negotiation between the Chinese platform and Microsoft This happened to guarantee the continuation of the operation in the USA. But the agreement did not go ahead and TikTok continued operating in American territory.
