TikTok is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, despite being one of the youngest. It took the world by storm and you'll find people of all ages using TikTok because there's something for everyone there. I use TikTok a lot and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Unfortunately for TikTok, which is part of ByteDance (founded by Chinese entrepreneurs), it looks like its luck in the US is about to run out, despite nearly two hundred million users in the country. Biden has given ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok to a US company or risk a ban across the nation.
TikTok Is Being Banned In The US Amidst Data and National Security Concerns
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in the US and the entire world, and it is particularly popular among the younger generations. Short-form video content isn't a new thing, but TikTok had the most success with it, and it's spurred copies from competitors like Meta and X (formerly Twitter).
Unfortunately for TikTok, their dominance, at least in the US market, may be set to come to an end if the Chinese-founded parent company, ByteDance, doesn't abide by new US legislation.
Just yesterday, President Biden signed a new bill into law, and the summary of that bill is that Bytedance will need to sell TikTok to a US parent company within 9 months if it plans to continue operating in the US. This can be extended to 12 months if it is determined that ByteDance is making progress towards acquiring a buyer. Otherwise, the app will be banned in the US and removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store (and the relevant domains will likely be blocked).
Of course, a TikTok sale would be certain to have a multi-billion dollar price tag. However, ByteDance will be very hesitant to make a sale of such a social media behemoth merely because of one market, and I'm curious to see how things will turn out at the end of this saga.
TikTok Is Not Going To Go Down Without A Fight In This Case
Unsurprisingly, TikTok has already released a statement in response to this new development from the United States government, and TikTok CEO Shou Chew has also released a video on the platform explaining things.
This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.
Official TikTok statement in response to impending ban
So, it is very clear that TikTok is going to go to court over this new law and isn't set to go down without a fight. You also might be wondering, how has TikTok spent billions of dollars to keep US data safe? The answer is “Project Texas”. This was a compromise that the company made following concerns about national security, to make sure that all data for US users would be stored in a US data center and nowhere else in the world.
Surprisingly, this aspect of things had not been concluded before the ban and TikTok claims that $1.5b was spent towards this measure. That's a lot of money to spend only to get hit with a sucker punch in the form of a ban.
