The US Senate recently approved a foreign aid package that contains legislation specifically addressing TikTok, the popular video-sharing platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance. This legislation, once made law, will require the parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months, with the possibility of extending the deadline by three months if significant progress is made in completing the sale. Any legal challenges could potentially delay the implementation of this law.
The Senate’s decision came as a result of the House of Representatives including the TikTok bill in a critical foreign aid package to countries like Kiev, Israel, and Taiwan, pushing the Senate to take up the issue sooner than expected. By extending the period within which a deal could be reached, the House gained more support in the Senate, where the measure passed by a vote of 79-18. TikTok’s response was that the House was leveraging important foreign and humanitarian aid to justify a ban that would infringe on the free expression rights of 170 million Americans, harm 7 million businesses, and shut down a popular platform.
Growing concerns voiced by lawmakers and intelligence officials include the potential threat to American users’ data due to the ownership of TikTok by a Chinese company. The worry largely stems from a Chinese national security law that could compel companies to share internal information. Despite TikTok being based in Singapore and denying that it stores American users’ data in China, lawmakers are apprehensive about possible Chinese government influence on the content viewed by US users.
Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, emphasized the lack of trust in Chinese companies, highlighting the fact that social media platforms, extensively used for commerce, political discourse, and social debates, could be easily manipulated to serve an authoritarian regime’s objectives. President Biden has affirmed his readiness to sign the law as soon as it reaches his desk, signaling the commencement of weapons and equipment shipments to Ukraine. This underscores the complexity and global ramifications of the issues at hand.