On April 20, 2024, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok. The votes counted were as follows:
315 members supported the bill, 94 opposed it, and 22 votes never counted.
This outcome has not been a shock after a long battle with this Chinese company. There are now two more legal processes left to have it blocked out of the country completely.
The public is split on the decision since many fully rely on TikTok to earn a living.
In the USA alone, this social media giant has over 150 million users. Some reports indicate that businesses related to this platform contribute close to 6 billion dollars in GDP.
As juicy as that statistic looks for the US, nothing has yet to stop the ban process.
Before we discuss the major legal steps left, we need to understand how we came to this point.
Jump to;
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Why would the US government decide to make that tough decision?
There are two major accusations:
- “TikTok is likely to sell US citizens’s private data to the Chinese government.”.
- The app is intentionally affecting the social behavior of young people due to its algorithm.
These are major cases even if the two governments don’t mix well politically. If this is true, not anywhere in the world can this be acceptable.
If you are living elsewhere in the world, I wonder if you understand your data privacy rights. Or do you just enjoy using these platforms? “Well, because they help us connect to the world.” Which is 100% right.
And after using some, “random ads” start recommending to you products based on your interests. In my opinion, people’s data is the major capital for all these platforms. No matter what country of origin. If governments mind protecting people’s data, deep screening should be done on all major companies
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What does TikTok say about the accusations?
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has denied the accusations on all occasions. These include him being questioned in the US Congress. He explained how his company would take the transparency game to the next level. He promised the following:
- Create a separate database in the US exclusively for citizens.
- To allow data control and processing to be done by American companies
- To allow third-party US-owned companies to monitor the source and patterns
On a special note, no company on record has ever provided such vulnerability loopholes. The US government still calls these crocodile tears.
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The two legal processes in detail.
1. In the Senate
Needing approval from both chambers:
The bill will have to be identical in both the House and Senate to proceed with the process.
Amendment Exchange.
In case the Senate queries the bill, it will make changes to the bill and send it back to the first chamber for consideration.
Eventually, one chamber will have to accept the other’s version for the bill to progress.
What if a common ground is not reached by the two chambers?
If this happens, a conference committee will be selected.
For more complex bills, a temporary conference committee, comprising members from both chambers, is established.
They aim to negotiate a compromise bill that both chambers can agree upon.
If successful, they produce a conference report outlining the agreed-upon bill.
Both chambers must approve the report without changes for the bill to proceed. The next step is to present the bill to the president.
2. Presidential Action:
President Biden in this case, will have 10 days (excluding Sundays) to sign the bill into law, reject it, or take no action. He publicly promised to sign it once it got to his table. At that stage, TikTok will be losing.
Signing it immediately will mean that TikTok cannot legally operate in the United States.
The signed bill shall be assigned a number and included in the official record of laws.
What if the president rejects the bill?
If the President vetoes the bill, it will return to the House of Representatives. Then the house
can attempt to make changes to it and repeat the cycle.
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Other Opinions.
Is it about competition?
The US is the leading global center for innovation and technology. This is the home of the biggest social media companies.
Say Meta (Facebook), X (Twitter), YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Instagram. None of the mentioned platforms has under a billion subscribers globally.
TikTok, a competitor from China has over 2 billion users and counting globally. And these are not just numbers. It translates to a net worth of between 50 and 75 billion dollars. For such a young company, this is unbelievable.
Read more: TikTok Net Worth: The Numbers are Staggering
The above statistic directs us to the center of the argument.
Forget the political tensions between these two leading global economies. As far as tech is concerned, companies from both countries compete roughly for the same market share.
As an example, we have seen:
- TikTok vs. US social media companies
- Xioami vs. US smartphone companies
- BYD Electric Vehicle Company vs. Tesla
The list goes on.
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How will the bill leave American users?
The government is offering TikTok a deal if it wants to stay in the US. The deal is for ByteDance the parent company to sell off the shares, to an American-based entity. In special terms a forced sale.
When the Chinese government heard of this, it swore to prevent it from happening.
Meanwhile, most influencers on this platform are shifting their content to other places.
- Facebook has reels,
- YouTube has shorts,
- Instagram too and Snapchat.
The content creators claim none of these platforms is as personal as TikTok.
Those who oppose this bill claim that it is against the United States First Amendment. ’’ Freedom of free speech”
We shall follow the bill and see if the US joins countries like Pakistan and India in banning this app.TikTok is also expected to push back in court to delay this process.
What do you think about this bill? Please feel free to join the conversation.
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