TikTok ban: US moves one step closer to outright banning short video pioneer after House of Representatives vote

For the second time in four years, TikTok is facing a potential ban in the US after the House of Representatives passed the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” on Wednesday. The bill categorizes TikTok as a national security threat due to its potential use by the Chinese Govt to collect US citizen’s data. The House passed the Act without any real resistance with 352 votes in favor of and 65 against the bill.

However, the bill still needs to get the approval of the US Senate before being brought up to President Biden who has previously stated that he will sign it into law.

Aftermath of the potential TikTok ban

Assuming the bill does get signed into law, ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, will have six months to divest from the US branch of the app. Failure to do so will result in the app being banned from app stores. Additionally, US companies, including hosting providers, engaging in business with TikTok would also get in trouble. In other words, TikTok, will cease to exist in the US market for the vast majority of people.

This is not to say that ByteDance won’t have any options left on the table in case of a complete ban. For instance, the company could challenge the law in court as it has successfully done before. ByteDance could also take the US branch of the business public as explained by The New York Times.

TikTok is big business. The app has roughly 170 million users in the US and, according to an eye-opening survey by Pew Research Center, 1/3rd of the total US internet users have used TikTok in 2023. So, outright banning the app will not only take a chunk of revenue away from ByteDance but will also anger a lot of the US population.

To that end, TikTok has responded to the bill by stating that “This process was secret, and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban. We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use our service.” Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, is also reportedly in the US to talk to senators regarding the bill.

Finally, the Chinese Govt is also not happy with the potential TikTok ban with the Chinese Foreign Ministry calling it “bullying behavior” which “damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order”. The ministry also warned that such a situation will eventually “come back to bite the United States itself”.

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