House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok

[bcla]

I'm not sure exactly how it would work if TikTok needs to be divested. The United States is apparently 15% of TikTok (separate from the Chinese Douyin) traffic. However, a good deal of their infrastructure and software development happens in the United States. I remember a few years back they were in talks to sell to Microsoft after an executive order, but that seemed to end after a federal court ruled that an EO couldn't be enforced.

https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-b...nal-security-8fa7258fae1a4902d344c9d978d58a37​

The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat.​

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The bill, passed by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.​

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TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.​

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The lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok’s consumers in the U.S. any time it wants. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering.​

 

[NYCgrrl]

This is the silliest House we’ve had in some time.

 

[_19disnA]

Didn't this all start when a former president was ticked off that someone on tictok had apparently encouraged others who had ZERO intent to show up to request tickets for one of those rallies so the event turned out to be a flop? I thought that is when this all started.

 

[bcla]

This is the silliest House we’ve had in some time.

The concern seems to be privacy. I don't necessarily buy that because American social media companies haven't necessarily had the the best track record. However, ByteDance theoretically can be forced to turn over information at the request of the Chinese government, even for their foreign subsidiaries including TikTok.

 

[PollyannaMom]

So first, this is me:

...meaning take my thoughts with the grain of salt they deserve!

While I might feel more comfortable if China didn't own TikTok, I also don't feel comfortable shutting down the livelihoods of the people who create the content on it.

 

[Moliphino]

Not a good way to court the youth vote.

 

[bcla]

Typical of many of the Executive Orders Trump signed which ended up in court or couldn't be implemented. Didn't this all start when Trump was ticked off that someone on tictok had apparently encouraged others who had ZERO intent to show up to request tickets for one of Trump's rallies so the event turned out to be a flop?

That was the BTS/TikTok flap. However, this bill has pretty good bipartisan support, so I wouldn't say it's inherently political at this point.

Besides - the tickets for that rally weren't limited in any way. My understanding was that it wasn't a guaranteed admission ticket and was basically people allowed in on a space available basis with an overflow area outside the arena. They claimed to have over a million tickets issued. I'm not trying to get overly political, but the basis for that claim that a "TikTok Army" prevented people from attending a rally was quite a bit off. I've read articles that predated the rally talking about worries that there would be a million people showing up and being denied admission.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Foreign companies having access to our data = bad!

American companies having access to our data = good!

 

[HopperFan]

The concern seems to be privacy. I don't necessarily buy that because American social media companies haven't necessarily had the the best track record. However, ByteDance theoretically can be forced to turn over information at the request of the Chinese government, even for their foreign subsidiaries including TikTok.

I saw a reasonable member of Congress state that while the data thing is being discussed, it really is no different than any other social media or app that harvests data already. Not their main concern.

He said the major concern is the government entity with ownership is using their position to have the algorithms written in a way to influence people on the For You page. I would have called BS on this except .......... I have been on TT long enough (I only watch don't post) to have been impressed by the algorithms in that I get topics I follow .... gardens, recipes, animals, bad neighbors , DIY house projects .... and in the last week I have been bombarded by a particular political group of people. Not just one or two but a clear purposeful amount of them. WHY? I don't follow anyone like that, I scroll quickly in the past ... they should not be in my algorithm. An algorithm that is impressive. SO why are they? What has changed? And if there is something brewing, perhaps that is why there was full support.

I mean we are being failed daily on the lack of anything being done to help the average person and why they took the time to do this is beyond me. But I do believe something is changing, enough I considered deleting the app??? [note: TT limits how many people you can block so at some point that is useless.]

 

[bcla]

Not a good way to court the youth vote.

TikTok will survive in some form.

I have seen the TikTok commercials talking about farmers and small business owners using it in their business. I guess they're trying to portray how valuable it is as a service to American businesses. However, I really doubt they're going to lose access to TikTok. But ByteDance certainly doesn't want to lose it.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Not a good way to court the youth vote.

The thinking seems to be that if they do it in a widely bipartisan fashion, neither party takes a hit.

If it happens, TikTok won't be the first company required to divest, and it won't be the last.

 

[pookybean]

Didn't this all start when a former president was ticked off that someone on tictok had apparently encouraged others who had ZERO intent to show up to request tickets for one of those rallies so the event turned out to be a flop? I thought that is when this all started.

Thats when i downloaded and started to use tik tok. Oh, hes going to tell me NOT to use it... watch this
Now I love it, I think I watch tik tok more than tv at this point!

 

[BrianL]

I am not concerned with data security, etc. but rather with the fact that TikTok and other social media is ruining society and will lead to the downfall of civilization. I'd elaborate, but I've gotta get back to telling kids to get off my lawn.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Gotta watch TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew with around five hours of questioning by lawmakers in the hearing with House Energy and Commerce Committee, I think it was 2023. I didn't know much about it before this but it gave me chills, needs to get gone.

Seems he can't say if he is an agent or it breaks their laws but dude wouldn't say he wasn't to break ours, whole thing blew my mind. Total must see.

Also, the app keeps generating contests they are severely hurting people especially kids AND it has built in safety limits in other countries not used in the US, like what????

 

[ElevationNotice]

Good, ban that app.

 

[_19disnA]

Every year or so yet another new social media sites appears and many run to that one. I guess we can all remember when myspace was all the rage...........now.......not so much...................LOL.

How much 'influence' any of these social media sites have over what people think/believe is likely hard to measure.

 

[The Mayor]

Kevin O’Leary has offered to buy TikTok for the US market. Wax for me, I don’t use it and the banning has not effect on my life. It it’s true that the China has control over it and information gathered from it the the ban seems reasonable. At least FB and Instagram are spying on their own country men/women

 

[bcla]

Every year or so yet another new social media sites appears and many run to that one. I guess we can all remember when myspace was all the rage...........now.......not so much...................LOL.

How much 'influence' any of these social media sites have over what people think/believe is likely hard to measure.

The advantage that MySpace had over Facebook was that they were actually open to any users, while Facebook was restricted to certain educational email addresses. When Facebook became open to everyone, that’s when it took off.

 

[Disney Bobby]

I bet there is more to this than we know. You don't get 197 Republican and 155 Democrat votes on a bill like unless there is something really bad going on with this app. I suspect they have had briefings about dangers that they can't talk about.

 

[AurumPunzel]

The concern seems to be privacy. I don't necessarily buy that because American social media companies haven't necessarily had the the best track record. However, ByteDance theoretically can be forced to turn over information at the request of the Chinese government, even for their foreign subsidiaries including TikTok.

Yeah, but has that actually been used in practice, or is this yet another example of neo-McCarthyism that seems to single out Chinese tech firms on the grounds of allegations of arms-length CCP links that could compromise national security? The USA missed out on some excellent smartphones, yet it overlooks the fact that even US brands like Apple routinely makes their smartphones in China. But they're scared of Huawei beating them so they just end up banning them.