Internet company
Change of ownership at Tiktok? USA increases pressure
Tiktok always rejects concerns and emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. photo
© Damian Dovarganes/AP/dpa
Joe Biden’s government is serious: it wants to see the video app Tiktok under American control. A law should pave the way. But the chances of success are uncertain.
A new attempt is imminent in the USA, a change of ownership of the short video app To force Tiktok. The House of Representatives in Washington could vote today on a law that could lead to the banning of Tiktok from American app stores if the service remains owned by the Bytedance company. In the USA, this is seen across all parties as a Chinese company that must bow to the will of the Chinese Communist Party.
According to a media report, Bytedance is determined to exhaust all legal remedies against an impending ban in the USA before considering a sale. A separation from Tiktok is seen as a last option, wrote the financial service Bloomberg, citing informed people.
After the House of Representatives, the draft would still have to be approved by the Senate as the second chamber and signed by President Joe Biden.
“Do we want data to stay in America or go to China?”
Biden has already made it clear that he supports the plan. His national security advisor Jake Sullivan emphasized that it was not about a “Tiktok ban” but about a change of ownership. “Do we want Tiktok as a platform to be owned by an American company – or owned by China?” he asked at a White House press conference. “Do we want data from Tiktok – data from children and adults – to stay here in America or go to China?” These are fundamental questions on which Biden has a clear position.
In the USA – as in Europe – there are concerns that the app could be misused by Chinese authorities to collect information about users or for political influence. Governments of several countries and the EU Commission banned the use of Tiktok on work cell phones.
Tiktok always rejects concerns and emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60 percent owned by Western investors. The company headquarters are on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders, with a share of 20 percent, maintained control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing.
Trump’s Tiktok turnaround: Ban would help Facebook
According to its own information, Tiktok has 170 million users in the USA. During his term as US President, Donald Trump tried to force a sale of Tiktok’s US business to American investors with threats of a ban.
But the plan failed primarily because US courts suspected the plans for a Tiktok ban to violate the freedom of speech enshrined in the US Constitution. A current law in the state of Montana that was supposed to ban Tiktok from the app stores there is also on hold.
Trump has now backed away from calls for a ban. Tiktok is an important counterweight to Facebook, which he sees as an “enemy of the people,” Trump recently said on the business broadcaster CNBC. Given his control over the Republicans, the ex-president’s position also raises the question of whether the law will be passed by the House of Representatives, where they have a slim majority.
Distrust of Tiktok boss
Before Biden took a clear position, the Democrats were very divided when it came to Tiktok: On the one hand, the president wants to take a tough position against China, and on the other hand, the app is popular among young users, whose votes he needs for re-election in November.
The Wall Street Journal wrote that Tiktok’s management was caught off guard by the bill. The service has been trying for years to gain trust in the USA with the plan to store information from American users exclusively in the country and to have data movements monitored by a US partner. But at hearings in the US Congress, Tiktok boss Shou Chew continued to be met with strong distrust.