The Chinese company ByteDance has 9 months with the possibility of extending this period to a year to reach an agreement on the sale of the very popular social network TikTok.
US President Joe Biden has signed a bill that could potentially ban the social network TikTok. According to the document, the Chinese company ByteDance must sell TikTok within 270 days, otherwise the social network will be banned in the United States. Jan. 19, 2025 is the deadline for selling TikTok, but Biden could extend it by another 90 days if he sees progress toward a sale.
What is the danger of TikTok?
The US move to ban the social network comes amid widespread concern that the Chinese company could hand over data on American users to authorities in Beijing, as required by China’s national security law. TikTok, which is based in Singapore, insists it does not store information about American users in China.
The question remains how China will react and whether the authorities will allow ByteDance to sell TikTok. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, wrote that the Chinese government believes that blocking the United States is better than selling.
Blocking in the USA means that the social network will be blocked in American application stores and in “Internet hosting sites” that support it. This will effectively limit new downloads of the app and interaction with its content.
Reaction on social networks
Bloomberg previously reported that TikTok plans to challenge the law in court. Litigation may ultimately change the timeline for the sale.
TikTok said the ban would affect 170 million Americans, destroy 7 million businesses, and cost the American economy $24 billion generated by the social network annually.
The USA is not the first
Some countries have had full or partial restrictions on TikTok for a long time: India has banned the social network since 2020, Afghanistan – since 2022, the application does not work in Iran and Kyrgyzstan.
Installing TikTok on government devices is prohibited in Taiwan and some EU countries, the UK, Canada and Australia. In 30 US states and New York City, TikTok is banned from use on government employees’ work smartphones.
Specifically, the White House ordered its own employees, as well as employees of the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and State Department, to remove the application from official smartphones and systems within 30 days from February 2023 .
Many college administrations block app access to campus Wi-Fi networks.
In May 2023, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation banning TikTok in the state, the first ban of its kind in the country. TikTok appealed this decision in court.
What to expect in Ukraine?
The Ukrainian law on sanctions contains the grounds for their introduction, in particular, when one of the allies introduced them either against an individual or a legal entity, said the MP, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.
At the same time, the representative of the people noted that there are no legislative initiatives in the parliament to ban TikTok.
“At the parliamentary level, there is now an initiative of the People’s Deputy Nikolai Knyazhitsky in relation to social networks, and if it is recognized as one that does not have a transparent system of ownership and will not create a representative office for cooperation with Ukraine, then there may be restrictions on its use, but from the state , and not from citizens There are no other initiatives regarding the functioning of social networks and I am not sure that there will be any in the near future, ” the Chairman of the Committee. emphasized.
Answering the question of whether the ban on TikTok in the United States could lead to a similar decision in Ukraine, Yurchyshyn said that our sanctions laws have one of the grounds for imposing sanctions – the presence of an individual or legal entity on our partners’ sanctions lists. “Therefore, such a decision by the United States may have an impact, but the ball is squarely in our court and everything depends on the position of our special services,” he added.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.