Biden Signs TikTok Divestment-or-Ban Bill

Facts

• US Pres. Joe Biden signed into law on Wednesday a bill that would ban TikTok nationwide within a year if its China-based owner, ByteDance, doesn't divest its stakes in the app.¹
• The legislation, part of a foreign aid package for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, passed in the Senate on Tuesday, 79 to 18, and in the House of Representatives on Saturday, 360 to 58.²
• This bipartisan support came amid allegations that the PRC could force ByteDance to share American user data or modify the algorithm to boost content favorable to Beijing.³
• ByteDance denies being subservient to the Chinese government, arguing that global investment firms own 60% of its stake and that three of its five board members are American.⁴
• TikTok has claimed that this newly signed divest-or-ban law violates the constitutional free speech rights of its 170M American users, and has vowed to put up a fight in court.⁵
• A bill giving the company six months to sell TikTok passed the House in March but stalled in the Senate, reportedly due to concerns that a legal challenge could jeopardize the ban.⁶

Sources: ¹Politico, ²Guardian, ³Associated Press, ⁴BBC News, ⁵CBS and ⁶National Review.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by New York Times. This bill is the latest move by the US to force TikTok to be sold to a government-approved buyer as concerns about user data security and potential misinformation mount worldwide. Given that Chinese companies can be legally obliged to provide data to Beijing, TikTok is an obvious national security threat.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Reason.com. Whether Congress censors are likely to soon sign this bill into law, the Supreme Court may eventually rule that a TikTok ban violates the First Amendment and its coerced sale violates the Fifth Amendment. Otherwise, the US government will dangerously have the power to force the sale of American companies for doing business with China.

Predictions