The short video platform Tiktok is mobilizing its US users by warning that the app will be shut down in the USA. “Congress is planning a total ban on Tiktok,” the service said in a notification. There was a button on the display to call the representatives from the user’s respective electoral district. The Tech Website The Information reported that a representative’s office was so flooded with calls that staffers felt they had no choice but to turn off the phones.
With the warning, Tiktok referred to a bill that is currently being worked on in the US House of Representatives. The document, prepared jointly by Democrats and Republicans, would give Tiktok owner Bytedance almost six months to relinquish control of the popular app. Otherwise, Tiktok risks being banned from the app stores in the USA.
Tiktok is the only successful online platform that does not come from the USA
The service claims to have 170 million users in the USA. Tiktok is the only successful online platform in the West that does not come from the USA. There is concern, especially in the USA, but also in Europe, that Chinese authorities could misuse the app to collect information about users. Governments of several countries and the EU Commission have already banned the use of Tiktok on work cell phones.
Tiktok always rejected concerns and emphasized that it did 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. US lawmakers often directly link Tiktok to the Chinese Communist Party.
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 because US courts suspected the plans for a Tiktok ban violated the freedom of speech enshrined in the US Constitution. A law in the state of Montana that was supposed to ban Tiktok from the app stores there is also on hold.
The website Punchbowl News recently reported that US President Joe Biden’s White House supported the new legislative initiative. Biden’s Democrats are divided when it comes 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.