A new Senate bill gives TikTok an additional 270 days to sell the app

The drama surrounding TikTok’s forced divestment from Chinese parent ByteDance continues with an eleventh-hour bill that would give the company more time to find a deal. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced the TikTok Deadline Extension Act on Monday, which if passed would give the company an additional 270 days to divest or be forced to shut down in the United States. I mentioned On the news.

Under a law passed by President Biden in April this year, TikTok was given a deadline of January 19 to find a new American owner. The company has so far insisted that it is not interested in separating from parent company ByteDance, although new reports indicate that the Chinese government is considering a deal for… TikTok sold to Elon Muskwhich would somehow be worse than banning it completely. After spending $250 million to support Trump’s presidential bid, it looks like Musk could get a huge return on his investment. TikTok quickly denied this report.

TikTok, meanwhile, continues to fight for its survival through the courts, with the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments on the initial law last Friday. While TikTok — along with many of its creators — argued that a ban would be a violation of the First Amendment, the justices disagreed You look skeptical. The government has said such a ban is necessary for national security reasons and is not a violation of free speech rights because it seeks to regulate the service, not the content created on that service.

In 2020, gay hookup app Grindr was forced to divest from its Chinese parent company after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) determined that data could be inappropriately used to blackmail or intimidate American users. There is no evidence that TikTok data was used improperly or that the company attempted to influence users’ opinions on any topic, which is another reason the company decided to reverse the ban. TikTok has maintained that the Chinese government has no control over its operations, although the claim that the Chinese government itself is considering a deal for TikTok undermines this thinking.

“TikTok has its problems,” Senator Markey said Monday, adding that “banning TikTok would impose severe consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social media and their economic livelihood.” “We cannot allow this to happen.” TikTok has more than 170 million monthly users in the United States.

In the case of Strange Fellows, President-elect Trump completely reversed his first term when he tried to shut down TikTok. He has since created an account on the app that has gained more than 14 million followers and now wants to prevent the ban from taking effect, at least until he has a chance to find a solution himself. Trump warned against banning TikTok, saying it would make Meta more powerful, even though it appears that way On good terms With CEO Mark Zuckerberg these days.

At the same time, TikTok users were hedging their bets by relying on another Chinese short video app, rednoteWhich makes the idea of ​​banning TikTok in order to protect against Chinese influence seem pointless. People want TikTok and all its short forms, like a pig in a trough.