The US has been working to ban TikTok in the country, citing data security concerns. This effort may turn into US law soon, leaving TikTok no choice but to be sold off to an American company.
This is because a new US bill is looking to force ByteDance (TikTok owner) to divest the social media app. Now, that very bill has successfully cleared the US House of Representatives with robust bipartisan backing, boasting a vote count of 352-65.
The measure now heads to the Senate for consideration. Notably, Senator Rand Paul has voiced opposition to the ban, injecting a glimmer of optimism for its potential outcome. However, should the bill advance, President Joe Biden has affirmed his intention to endorse it into law, despite the recent affiliation of the Biden reelection campaign with TikTok just a month ago.
Thanks to this bill, several US tech giants including Microsoft have been interested in acquiring TikTok’s global operations, but ByteDance opposed such a sale. More recently, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has also shown keen interest in buying TikTok alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
TikTok is a massive name with over $10 billion in-app spending and over a billion monthly users, so naturally, there are a lot of potential buyers looking for acquisition.
However, before TikTok is banned in the US, there will still be a lot of legal hoops to go through. Take, for instance, the case of Montana, which imposed a ban on TikTok last year. However, a few months later, a federal judge intervened, overturning the ban. This instance isn’t the first time such a ban has been challenged successfully. Naturally, ByteDance and Chinese authorities will advocate for an alternative strategy.
