Last April, Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed an unusual rules that may end up banning, in the United States at least, a solution 170 million Americans use — TikTok.
The legislation gives the Chinese-owned social-media firm until next January 19 to offer to a non-Chinese user or stop operations. The Chinese authorities is against it, according to TikTok, and a sale is difficult. TikTok may have to shut down if it is unable to persuade the authorities to reverse the law.
It’s an amazing scenario, however. Congress does not regularly enact laws to put firms in business. And this is n’t just any company.
It is a business that almost half the nation runs ( and, in some cases, is attached to ) Both presidential hopefuls used it to seduce voters, according to the business. ( They both at times favored drastic action against the business, but it’s size made them feel compelled to use it. )
Needless to say, Congress took this strange step in the name of ByteDance, which owns TikTok and is owned by the Chinese business ByteDance. All of those American consumers have private information that TikTok has collected. ByteDance may have no choice but to complience if China’s state demanded that information be disclosed.
Politicians feared that China would use the data in a hostile manner. According to TikTok supporters, China’s extensive spy network now has or had simply use TikTok to obtain information. That’s contradictory, but what’s never debatable is that with TikTok under Beijing’s influence, there’s a chance its famous engine could be adjusted to market pro-China deep scams, or worse.
As the Senate passed the bill next April, Chairwoman of the Commerce Committee said,” Congress is certainly acting to condemn ByteDance, TikTok, or any other personal business.” ” Congress is acting to prevent foreign enemies from conducting spy, security, reviled activities, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U. S. authorities personnel”.
Americans do n’t seem to want the protection Congress offered. According to Pew Research, only 32 % of US adults support a TikTok ban.
It’s not that they’re soft on China. According to another surveys, this one by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Americans give China a 26 on a one-to-100 level, the lowest preference standing since the government started polling in 1978. A record 58 % of Americans believe China to be a” critical threat to the United States ‘ vital interests.”
There are, when you think about it, two stops below. One is between how unfavorably China is perceived by the general public and how uninteresting TikTok is. Sometimes that’s because, for so many of its people, TikTok is about common culture and entertainment more than politicians.
The various discrepancy is between the enormous bipartisan support for the ban in both the House and the Senate and the general public’s opposition to it. Congress and the public are n’t usually so far apart.
The Supreme Court could also make the final decision on TikTok’s coming. Do n’t assume that the business has no chance of prevailing there. The judges will have to consider national-security considerations against First Amendment freedom-of-speech right – not only TikTok’s, but the right of the bank’s 100, 000-plus “influencers”, some of whom make their living from their TikTok articles.
Facebook, X and other American social-media operations are banned in China and there’s no court they can appeal to there. If the courts permitted the continued use of TikTok, it would be ironic.
If Washington refused to accept the offer from a Japanese company, Nippon Steel, to buy US Steel, the irony would double. A sale was opposed by both presidential candidates, not the least of which is because Pennsylvania was viewed as a swing state in the election and Pennsylvania.
President Biden opposed it, too. He requested that the Cabinet-level Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS, investigate whether the acquisition would be harmful to national security. Following the election, a CFIUS decision was delayed.
People in Tokyo may be wondering whether the US is aware of the difference between an adversary and an ally if the final answers are “yes” to TikTok and “no” to Nippon Steel.
Urban Lehner, a former Wall Street Journal Asia correspondent and editor, is DTN/The Progressive Farmer’s editor emeritus.  , This , article, originally published on November 11 by the latter news organization and now republished by Asia Times with permission, is © Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.  ,  , Follow , Urban Lehner , on X @urbanize