A bill to sell the U.S. business of China’s popular short-form video app ‘TikTok’ passed the U.S. Senate on the 23rd. TikTok is mainly used to create and share short videos using music. It is also a platform that is trending especially among the younger generation. However, the U.S. government is demanding the sale of TikTok and has passed a bill on it.
However, the U.S. government believes that if TikTok is used as a propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party, it risks stealing the personal information of U.S. users without permission.
According to the bill, China ByteDance, a company that owns a stake in TikTok, must sell TikTok’s U.S. business within nine months and can receive one 90-day extension under the president’s authority if the sale is not made within nine months. However, if the sale is not made after that, the service in the U.S. will never be used.
Late on the evening of the 23rd, the U.S. The Senate passed a package of security legislation that included the so-called “TikTok Ban Act” with 79 votes to 18 votes against. Now, that agenda is implemented only after the president’s signature.
However, the bill is unlikely to be easy. With the Chinese government in a major opposition to the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business, not many companies can afford the expensive acquisition. Even TikTok seems to challenge the bill, so it is not expected to be easy.
How will the bill come to an end?
Works Cited
장지민. “美 하원 틱톡 금지법 수정안 통과.” 한국경제, 22 Apr. 2024, www.hankyung.com/article/2024042286877.
Roush, Ty. “House Approves Potential TikTok Ban—Here’s What to Know.” Forbes, 20 Apr. 2024,
www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/04/20/house-approves-nationwide-tiktok-ban-heres-w hat-to-know.
Hansen, Sarah. “How a TikTok Ban Could Boost Stock Prices for Meta, Alphabet and Snap.” Money, 17 Apr. 2024, money.com/tiktok-ban-could-boost-m
eta-alphabet-snap-stocks.
By. Seunghoon Jeong