Biden signs law
Countdown for forced sale of Tiktok is on
April 24, 2024, 7:43 p.m
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When signed by US President Biden, the law on the change of ownership at Tiktok comes into force. The Chinese company Bytedance now has a year to sell. If this does not succeed, Tiktok is threatened with extinction in the USA. The company has already announced its intention to take action against the law.
US President Joe Biden has signed the law that is intended to force a change of ownership of the short video app Tiktok and thus brought it into force. Tiktok is threatened with banishment from American app stores if the app is still owned by the China-based Bytedance Group in a year. Tiktok wants to challenge the law in court.
The law was only passed by the Senate that night with a large majority of 79 to 18 votes. Bytedance is viewed across all parties in the USA as a Chinese company that must bow to the will of the Chinese Communist Party. That’s why there are warnings that Chinese authorities could gain large-scale access to data from American users – and also use the platform for political influence. Tiktok has been denying this for years.
It is unclear whether the law can stand up in US courts. An earlier threat to ban it failed there and a similar law in the state of Montana was recently shelved due to possible violations of the freedom of expression enshrined in the US Constitution.
Tiktok claims to have 170 million users in the USA and repeatedly emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60 percent owned by Western investors. The company headquarters are on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. However, US politicians counter that the Chinese founders maintained control thanks to higher voting rights with a share of 20 percent and that Bytedance’s headquarters are in Beijing, where they cannot escape the influence of the authorities.
During his term as US President, Donald Trump already tried to enforce a sale of Tiktok’s US business to American investors by decree. But the plan failed primarily because US courts saw the plans as a violation of freedom of expression and an overreach of power by the president. As a law, the current initiative stands on a more solid legal basis. The Republican Trump, who wants to be re-elected in November, has now backed away from calls for a ban.