“This shows that the United States has no real freedom of speech.” It is one of many angry comments during a news article on the website Phoenix that the US Senate has voted that Tiktok will be banned unless the Chinese owner company Bytedance sells the app within nine months. Similar objections have come from Bytedance and Tiktok.
It is a contradictory accusation from the Chinese side, to say the least. In China, international Tiktok and a number of other apps and websites are blocked.
Facebook, Google, many international news sites, X (formerly Twitter) cannot be reached unless you use vpn, digital tunnels that connect the user via another country. But vpn is also forbidden to use in China. Now, absurdly enough, the 170 million American Tiktok users are being advised that in the event of a ban, they can get a VPN and access the app via other countries where it is allowed.
But for now, they can use the app as usual. It’s a long process before any ban goes into effect, if it ever does. First, the congressional decision must become a law signed by President Joe Biden. After that, Bytedance is expected to appeal the decision in a process that could take years. Add to that the fact that Donald Trump has gone from wanting to ban Tiktok to embracing the app. A win for him in the presidential election could be Tiktok’s salvation.
Photo: Jade Gao/AFP
Yet the Senate’s news disappointing for Tiktok which has enjoyed great success in the US, especially among young people. The company, which is based in Singapore, denies that it has any collusion with the Chinese government. Bytedance also emphasizes that its largest owners are global institutions, they account for 60 percent. Employees of the company own 20 percent and the rest is owned by the founder, except for one percent owned by a Chinese state-owned company that also gives them a seat on the board.
But it hasn’t helped. The decision is based on a suspicion that user data from the app could be used by Chinese forces to spy on the United States. Under Chinese law, all companies are required to provide information to the regime if there are national security reasons.
That in addition the The Chinese embassy in the United States has lobbied against the proposal, which has been seen as confirmation that there is a link between Tiktok and the Chinese government.
Even if Bytedance were to help sell Tiktok, it could run into patrols. In China, there is a law that gives the government the right to deny the sale of sensitive technology to the United States. And the algorithms and codes that made Tiktok so successful are owned by Bytedance, which is not allowed to sell them abroad without government review. And without them, Tiktok would just be an empty shell.
