Time is ticking for TikTok in the United States. A ban in the country is now very close, but why and what are the consequences for us in the Netherlands?
It has been in the air for years, but now it seems really close: a departure of TikTok from the United States. Only one option seems possible: a sale to an American company.
The US Senate has approved a bill that could ban TikTok. President Joe Biden just needs to sign it. He has previously said he will do so if it passes both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
TikTok looks set to be banned soon in the United States
The bill requires Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok. If it fails to do so, the app could be banned in the United States.
To be precise, ByteDance has up to one year to sell TikTok if Biden signs the bill. Initially, this is nine months. If negotiations are advanced between ByteDance and another party, another three months may be granted.
Still, it may all take even longer. It is quite possible that ByteDance will disagree with the law and sue. So the government has some legal challenges to overcome first.
For years, a TikTok ban has been up in the air
A possible ban of TikTok is a process that has been going on for years. First there was Donald Trump, who wanted to ban the social medium. Now, however, it has entered a new phase, and that has everything to do with the House of Representatives.
The House has already voted twice on the sale of TikTok. There, the proposal passed overwhelmingly. However, this measure was about a six-month period. The Senate, however, remained too non-committal.
Now the House has taken a smarter approach. It put it in the package of measures dealing with foreign aid, or voting on money for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. As a result, the Senate did have to vote on it because these issues were priorities. In addition, extending the measure also increased support.
What else does ByteDance have besides TikTok?
ByteDance has several other popular platforms, including Douyin, a similar video app aimed primarily at the Chinese market. The company also owns Jinri Toutiao, a news app, and Xigua Video, a video platform. The company also does a lot of research on AI.
With the approval of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, there appears to be a green light for Joe Biden to sign the TikTok Act. This allows the plan that initially came from Donald Trump to go forward permanently.
Why does the United States want to ban TikTok?
But why does TikTok actually need to be banned or placed in American hands? According to U.S. politicians, that’s as follows. They are concerned that the data of American citizens will end up in the hands of the Chinese government.
That, in turn, is because of a Chinese security law that can force companies to turn over information to the government. So it can force TikTok to display that information.
ByteDance again disagrees. It has TikTok based in Singapore and claims it does not store information about U.S. users in China. However, the United States doesn’t believe any of that at all.
ByteDance’s resistance to sell TikTok
To address those concerns, TikTok previously launched Project Texas. For this, it spoke with the Committee on Foreign Investment of the United States. It was to ensure greater transparency and accountability of the company. The plan had five pillars: independent governance, data protection and access control, software assurance, content assurance, monitoring and compliance.
However, that was not enough for the U.S. government. Despite this plan, TikTok’s algorithm, source code and development activities would still remain in China. As a result, there would still be control from the Chinese government.
To avoid a ban, TikTok even went so far as to call on users to oppose the bill. As a result, senators were deluged with emails and phone calls.
However, this backfired. For politicians, this was just a sign of how powerful TikTok is and thus a good reason to put a stop to it.
What will happen to TikTok?
So for ByteDance, the only option seems to be to sell TikTok if it wants to remain active in the United States. There will be plenty of companies only too eager to acquire the social medium.
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Among the names circulating in the corridors are former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary, Oracle and Microsoft. Still, they will probably have to bring hefty cash. TikTok’s value is estimated by various media outlets to be around $50 billion, although these figures are from 2022. Parent company ByteDance, in turn, is said to be worth around $275 billion.
Will there also be a TikTok ban in the Netherlands?
Although there has been much criticism of TikTok from the Dutch government, a blanket ban on TikTok does not seem imminent. There is a ban, but it is only for government employees. They are not allowed to install the app on their work phones for fear of spying. In addition, ministries are also not on TikTok, unlike some political parties.
Still, there will be many consequences for Dutch TikTok users. Much content from American creators will disappear. Perhaps you will then have to go to another platform such as Instagram or YouTube. In addition, American trends are often imitated. This might happen more indirectly if those content creators are no longer on the platform.
So the only way nothing seems to change is if another company acquires TikTok. The only big question is whether ByteDance will want to, or just focus on the rest of the world and not care about a U.S. blockade.