TikTok ban in US looms as parent told to find buyer

TikTok’s future in the US hangs in the balance after politicians voted for a bill that would require ByteDance, its parent company, to find a non-Chinese buyer for the app or face a ban in the country.

The decision could affect TikTok’s 170 million users in the US, and has been criticised by the company and campaigners.

But it is just the latest round in a years-long fight between the US government and the social media app, which has skyrocketed in popularity, with more than 1.5 billion users worldwide.

WHY HAS IT HAPPENED?

“This has been on the table for a some time, and so while the current timing feels [as if it has come] out of nowhere, we’ve seen growing support in Congress about this issue over the past several years,” said Dr Robyn Caplan, assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Anti-China hawks in the Republican party have long opposed TikTok because its parent company is based in China, and president Donald Trump even tried to ban it in 2020, but in recent weeks opposition has spread and crystallised into a crossparty consensus.

A major factor in the antipathy towards TikTok is that it is seen as beholden to the Chinese government, not least because China has passed laws that force Chinese companies to help the state with intelligence gathering.

WHAT NOW?

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives, but still has to be voted through the Senate – which may choose not to pass it – and signed off by President Joe Biden.

If it were to go through all those stages, ByteDance would have to sell up or take TikTok offline in the US. And there may well be an appeal in the courts.

WILL THE UK FOLLOW SUIT?

This is the multibillion-dollar question for TikTok. And it’s one on which experts are split. History suggests countries could move in packs against TikTok.

“As we saw last year, many other countries, including Britain, banned TikTok on government devices like the US,” said Dr Caplan. For that reason, she was pessimistic about TikTok’s future. “If the US government succeeds in this ban, it’s likely others will follow suit.”

However, Anupam Chander, professor of law and technology at Georgetown University, is less certain – not least because the US “ban” still has some way to go.

“I suspect other politicians will likely sit back and wait to see how this evolves,” he said.

No 10 said yesterday it has no plans to ban TikTok. But Parliament has banned TikTok from its network.