The US Congress has voted through a bill to ban social media app Tiktok unless its Chinese-linked owner Bytedance sells its stake. First the House of Representatives voted it through, then the Senate. Now the president has Joe Biden signed the bill (but continues his election campaign on the app for the time being).
An ultimatum in other words.
So how does Tiktok stand?
Tiktok would prefer to completely shut down operations in the US than to sell after testing all legal avenues around the ban, multiple sources told Reuters.
There are good reasons for Bytedance not to release Tiktok in the first place. The algorithm that is central to Tiktok is also central to Bytedance’s entire core business, which would make a sale of Tiktok highly unlikely, the news agency writes.
Tiktok also accounts for a smaller part of Bytedance’s total turnover, which means that a shutdown in the US is on the table. Bytedance owns around ten major brands in video editing, gaming and social media.
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