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The vote to force TikTok to be divested from Chinese ownership, or be banned in the United States, has passed in the House of Representatives, by a very wide majority.
That large vote also produced some weird alliances. As they say, politics makes strange bedfellows. The bill passed 352 to 65, with most members of the Squad standing firmly alongside *checks notes* Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Nancy Mace.
https://twitter.com/KareemRifai/status/1767930050102313232
To my eye, the 65 representatives who voted to keep TikTok as-is are the ones who have very online presences, and are loath to mess up their virtual reach by messing with TikTok. The bill, as passed, would only ban TikTok if the company continues to be owned by ByteDance, which like all Chinese companies, answers to the CCP.
The legislation essentially gives ByteDance two options: sell TikTok or face a ban.
If ByteDance chooses to divest its stakes, TikTok would continue to operate in the U.S. if the President determines “through an inter-agency process” that the platform is “no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary.” The bill would also require ByteDance to give up control of TikTok’s well-known algorithm, which feeds users content based off their preferences.
Experts have said it will be challenging for ByteDance to sell TikTok in a few months.
If the company chooses not to sell, TikTok would be prohibited from app stores – such as those offered by Apple and Google – as well as web-hosting services until a divesture occurs, according to the bill.
Lawmakers from both parties – as well as law enforcement and intelligence officials – have long expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over data on the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering – which ByteDance would likely be subject to – and other far-reaching ways the country’s authoritarian government exercises control.
TikTok has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if its asked. To date, U.S. government also has not provided any evidence that shows TikTok shared such information with Chinese authorities.
Huh. Well, if China and the Chinese Communist Party’s purported intelligence gathering from TikTok isn’t going to be bothered by this bill because they’ve never accessed American user data from the app, then no problem! Right?
“Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, according to Agence France-Presse.
“This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” he added.
“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang continued.
Oh.
The fact that the Chinese *foreign ministry* is lashing out over the House's TikTok bill tells you everything you need to know.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) March 13, 2024
It was also help if Congress could have representatives who can speak intelligibly about the internet, technology, and the younger generations, instead of putting NANCY PELOSI up to support the bill in the most awkward “how do you do, fellow kids?” possible way.
Please stop https://t.co/brjmbrWBaC
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) March 13, 2024
Pelosi’s grandchildren are probably quietly trying to blend in with the walls as they suffer from secondhand cringe.
That elderly defense aside, it’s also important to remember what ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, actually is.
This needs to be pointed out more: ByteDance is part of the CCP’s military-civil fusion system. It’s possibly the most compelling reason to crack down on ByteDance/ TikTok.
“ByteDance is not just a tech company; it is a cog in China’s vast military machinery.”… pic.twitter.com/PugybUVGCl
— Jimmy Quinn (@james_t_quinn) March 12, 2024
The bill now has to go to the Senate, where it does face opposition from *checks notes again* Senator Rand Paul.
In an interview on “The Hill” on NewsNation, Paul argued that a ban on TikTok would be akin to steps employed by the Chinese government, which, Paul said, is precisely the supposed threat from which such a ban would purport to shield Americans.
“TikTok is banned in China,” Paul said. “We’re thinking – or people who want to ban it are thinking – Wow, we’re going to really defeat the Chinese communists, by becoming Chinese authoritarians and banning it in our country? TikTok is banned in China. So, we’re going to emulate the Chinese communists by banning it in our country?”
“It makes no sense whatsoever,” he added.
Paul also argued that some Americans have a stake in TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, and that such a ban would be taking property away from Americans without proving a crime first.
“We know that the Chinese government does demand things, but we don’t know that any information really is going from TikTok to any of these people in China,” he said, noting that a provable crime is necessary to take property from Americans.
Senator Paul is correct that TikTok, as it exists in the West, does not exist in China. It has a different name, Douyin, and has vastly different rules for use and the algorithm.
Imagine if the same rules for Douyin users under 14 applied to American TikTok users under 14, and they were also restricted to child-safe and educational content for only 40 minutes a day, and unable to use the app between 10 pm and 6 am? I wonder why China has those rules for children in place. It’s a mystery, Charlie Brown.
I really just wish I recorded my 18-year-old barista having a breakdown about them banning TikTok.
She went from yelling how she lives on TikTok to saying if they banned it, it might be better for her life because she's on it 9 hours a day.
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 13, 2024
I realize that people have learned how to use TikTok to their own benefit, and to make money off the platform by being “influencers.” (Full disclosure, I am not on TikTok, and neither are my minor children.) I also realize that the site can be fun, along with so many other social media sites. However, I also realize there is an addictive element to all social media, and TikTok has an edge because it is solely video-based, and the algorithm keeps feeding the user what they’ve been looking for in searches. It’s clear that ByteDance has zero interest in putting the same rules in place on American consumers that they have to follow for Chinese ones, and there are no safeguards against the Chinese Communist Party coming in and demanding that ByteDance hand over their user data. There are reasons that TikTok is banned on government devices, after all.
Should the bill pass the Senate and get to Biden’s desk, he has said that he would sign it. What is his campaign going to do with their TikTok account, then?
Featured image: Solen Feyissa on Flickr, cropped, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Cameron says: “We know that the Chinese government does demand things, but we don’t know that any information really is going from TikTok to any of these people in China,”
With respect, Senator:
Any company based in China is owned by the CCP. No exceptions. You should know this.
They can and do hand over information to the CCP.
Que says: Billionaire TikTok investor John Yass is a big contributor to Rand Paul. He also has the attention of Donald Trump, and now Trump has come out against the bill requiring the sale of TikTok.
Politics over principle. Let me show you my shocked face.
John Shepherd says: Gaetz and Greene voted no because Trump did a 180 and now opposes divest or ban, which originally proposed. One of his big donors has a big stake in bytedance. It’s not 2016 anymore and Trump is now beholden to donors like everyone else.
Massey, like Paul, is a faux Libertarian with a soft spot for America’s enemies. Ron Paul was a big supporter of the Mullah’s and I don’t think Rand fell far from the tree.
Maybe we can cut a deal with bytedance. They can keep their business as long as they apply the same age restriction rules to the US.
Kevin says: For republicans, it’s going to come down to the Malignant Tumor making a 180 degree, neck snapping, change in direction. Why? When it comes to the Malignant Tumor, the question is always, “What’s in it for him?”
The Malignant Tumor met with the donor and multi-billion dollar hedge fund manager Jeff Yass, earlier this month at a Club for Growth donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1. The Club for Growth is a conservative political organization. Of course the Malignant Tumor said, “I met Jeff Yass but we didn’t talk about TikTok. Just the one billionth lie he’s uttered the past month.
Let’s see if the Malignant Tumor can implode the vote in the Senate like he did with the Border Bill in the House.
Aside from my Malignant Tumor comments above, I agree it should be banned. TikTok in China is used for two things … as an educational tool and as a propaganda mouthpiece for the Communist Party. That’s it. They don’t allow vidoes of people doing insane things, people expressing opinions and beliefs, or anything else. It’s horribly disingenuous when the Chinese government comes out and says Congress is squelching US Citizens rights to free speech. They don’t give a rats patootie about “free speech.”
It’s also addictive. I started looking at it a few years ago when I go to bed on my iPad and after what seemed like a few minutes, I’d look at the clock and it was 2 or 3 am! I just had to stop watching it altogether.
Lastly, the Chinese government showed the influence of TikTok when they spammed their users to contact their representatives in the US and were able, with the use of the location function, specifically tell each user who their representative/senator was and their contact information. The phones on capital hill were inundated. That in itself is too much power.
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