In a contentious move, the Senate has passed legislation that would necessitate the sale of TikTok, a popular social media platform, by its China-based parent company, ByteDance. The threat of a ban looms if the sale is not completed within the stipulated time frame. The action underscores the long-standing fears in Washington over perceived threats posed by Chinese entities, including the potential for data misuse or influence over American users through content suppression or promotion. The legislation passed by a vote of 79-18 as part of a larger aid package for Ukraine and Israel. It now awaits President Biden’s signature for enactment. Last week’s decision by House Republicans to attach the TikTok bill to this high-priority package expedited its passage in Congress, following negotiations with the Senate. A previous version of the bill had given ByteDance a six-month deadline to divest its stakes in TikTok, but faced skepticism from lawmakers who deemed it an insufficient timeframe for such a complex transaction. The revised legislation extends the deadline to nine months, with a possible three-month extension if a sale is in progress. The bill further bars TikTok from controlling its algorithm, the secret sauce behind the platform’s personalized content delivery system. Sentiment against Chinese influence over TikTok runs deep among lawmakers and administration officials. Concerns have been raised about the potential for the Chinese government to compel ByteDance to surrender American user data or manipulate content on the platform to promote or suppress specific narratives. “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok, or any other individual company,” stated Senator Maria Cantwell, Chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel.” Opponents of the bill maintain that the Chinese government could easily acquire information on Americans through alternative channels, including commercial data brokers. In response to these concerns, the foreign aid package includes a provision prohibiting data brokers from selling or renting “personally identifiable sensitive data” to entities in countries such as North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. However, the provision has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues that its broad language could inadvertently capture journalists and others who publish personal information. Many opponents of the TikTok measure advocate for a comprehensive federal data privacy law that would safeguard consumers from all companies, regardless of their origin. They also emphasize the lack of publicly available evidence demonstrating that TikTok has shared user information with Chinese authorities or that Chinese officials have tampered with its algorithm. “Banning TikTok would be an extraordinary step that requires extraordinary justification,” said Becca Branum, a deputy director at the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology, which advocates for digital rights. “Extending the divestiture deadline neither justifies the urgency of the threat to the public nor addresses the legislation’s fundamental constitutional flaws.” China has consistently opposed any forced sale of TikTok and has signaled its continued resistance to this legislation. TikTok has also vehemently denied being a security threat and is preparing a lawsuit to block the legislation. “At the stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, wrote in a memo to employees. “This is the beginning, not the end of this long process.” TikTok has had some success in previous court challenges but has never attempted to block federal legislation from taking effect. In November, a federal judge blocked a Montana law that would have banned TikTok use statewide after a lawsuit filed by the company and five content creators. Three years prior, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights. The Trump administration subsequently brokered a deal that involved U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart taking a significant stake in TikTok, but the sale never materialized. Despite his previous support for a ban, Trump, who is running for president again this year, now opposes the potential ban. Meanwhile, TikTok has been engaged in discussions about its future with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a secretive government agency responsible for reviewing corporate deals for national security concerns. Erich Andersen, a top lawyer for ByteDance who led talks with the U.S. government for several years, recently announced his resignation from the role. “As I started to reflect some months ago on the stresses of the last few years and the new generation of challenges that lie ahead, I decided that the time was right to pass the baton to a new leader,” Andersen wrote in an internal memo. He emphasized that the decision was solely his own and had been made months earlier in consultation with the company’s senior leaders. TikTok content creators, whose livelihoods depend on the platform, have been vocal in their opposition to the legislation. On Tuesday, some creators gathered outside the Capitol building to protest the bill, carrying signs that proclaimed, “I’m 1 of the 170 million Americans on TikTok.” Tiffany Cianci, a content creator with over 140,000 followers on the platform, organized the demonstration and spent the previous night picking up creators from airports in the Washington, D.C. area. Some traveled from as far as Nevada and California, while others drove overnight from South Carolina or took a bus from upstate New York. Cianci expressed her belief that TikTok is currently the safest platform for users due to Project Texas, the company’s $1.5 billion initiative to store U.S. user data on servers owned and operated by Oracle. “If our data is not safe on TikTok,” she said, “I would ask why the president is on TikTok.” The legislation’s passage is a culmination of long-held concerns over Chinese influence and the ownership of TikTok, which boasts 170 million American users. However, the legality of the forced sale provision remains uncertain, and TikTok has indicated its intent to pursue legal challenges. The outcome of this battle will have significant implications for the future of TikTok in the United States and for the broader landscape of data privacy and national security.
TikTok Faces Forced Sale or Ban as Senate Passes Legislation
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