TikTok Could Face US Ban Unless Chinese Owners Sell Stake

[MacRumors]

The Biden administration is reportedly demanding that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their stake in the short-form video sharing app or it could face a possible U.S. ban.

First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the demand is said to have come from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a multiagency federal task force that oversees national-security risks in cross-border investments.

It is the latest move in a crackdown on the ByteDance-owned app, which has already been the target of government restrictions. In February, the Biden administration ordered federal agencies to remove TikTok from government devices, and dozens of state governments have since passed similar bans on the app.

TikTok has been in the cross-hairs of U.S. regulators for years, going back to the Trump administration's failed attempt to bar the app from U.S. app stores in September 2020. Concerns over the app have heightened in recent months after both Republicans and Democrats called for officials to impose stricter data collection restrictions or ban the app from the U.S. entirely.

In August 2022, ByteDance submitted a plan detailing how it plans to prevent the Chinese government from having access to data on U.S. users, and how it will offer the U.S. government oversight of the platform. However, discussions between TikTok and Washington on the issue have reportedly stalled.

In related developments, TikTok is set to be banned on phones used by British government ministers and civil servants, following a review by the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Center. Canada, Belgium, and the European Commission have already barred the app from government phones.

Article Link: TikTok Could Face US Ban Unless Chinese Owners Sell Stake

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

It’s so that the BIG people can silence everyone else who knows what’s really going on 😤

 

[icanhazapple]

Zero chance the Bytedance sells their stake in TikTok. TikTok will be fine without its western userbase.

 

[AmazeSE]

It is probably for the best.

 

[femike]

Three anti-China stories I've read in 10min. There is no doubt that there is a concerted effort, a collaboration between US and UK, and lead by the US, to totally economically strangle both China and Russia. Fortunately, their efforts will ultimately fail. I just hope the US doesn't drag the rest of the world down with it.

 

[wanha]

How many Western social networks are allowed in China?

Zero.

I've always wondered why Western countries allow China to play by completely different rules.

It was high time for something like this.

 

[ksgant]

Why are they focused so much on this one app? Especially when you have whole computer companies that are partially owned by the Chinese government (like Lenovo). Much of our electronic devices are made inside of China. Many of the components of...well, everything... are also made there. But it's TikTok that's the focus?

 

[ian87w]

Why are they focused so much on this one app? Especially when you have whole computer companies that are partially owned by the Chinese government (like Lenovo). Much of our electronic devices are made inside of China. Many of the components of...well, everything... are also made there. But it's TikTok that's the focus?

Distraction of the week/month/year?

 

[Havalo]

Classic smoke and mirrors...

 

[madebybela]

can they stop with the tricks and just ban it already. humanity will be better off for it.

 

[maflynn]

We're Americans and we only let American companies spy on us

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

I'm supportive of any move that'll hopefully lead to kids stop using this terrible app.

 

[contacos]

Why are they focused so much on this one app? Especially when you have whole computer companies that are partially owned by the Chinese government (like Lenovo). Much of our electronic devices are made inside of China. Many of the components of...well, everything... are also made there. But it's TikTok that's the focus?

TikTok is probably getting too big and threatens the US business of social media platforms.

---

Also, with that logic and the fact that the "privacy shield" between the US and the EU is currently on hold, Instagram et all should also be banned in the EU since it is sending data to the US, which is considered "not save" as they can share user data of EU citizens with the FBI etc. its kind of hypocritical. China = bad USA = tolerated

 

[hagar]

I agree. As long as Meta is blocked from doing business in the EU.

 

[maflynn]

I'm supportive of any move that'll hopefully lead to kids stop using this terrible app.

Why is it terrible?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing but please tell me why its terrible?

 

[scrapesleon]

Now why would they sell something that is mostly profitable

 

[ericwn]

I'm supportive of any move that'll hopefully lead to kids stop using this terrible app.

I agree but as per usual in psychology anything you tell kids to stay away from are ultimately things they will try out for sure. I’d rather invest in education which seems has room for development in North America.

 

[wanha]

Now why would they sell something that is mostly profitable

Because otherwise they'll get banned in the US and probably many other Western countries, and then they won't be nearly as profitable.

 

[ifxf]

I wonder how many congressmen worry about the Chinese manufactured TVs hanging in their offices. Almost all sets include a microphone and the customers always connect them to the internet.

 

[maflynn]

I wonder how many congressmen worry about the Chinese manufactured TVs hanging in their offices

Funny you mentioned that:
US raises concerns over Chinese ‘spy-cranes’ at ports
The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies
Does Your Motherboard Have a Secret Chinese Spy Chip?

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

Why are they focused so much on this one app? Especially when you have whole computer companies that are partially owned by the Chinese government (like Lenovo). Much of our electronic devices are made inside of China. Many of the components of...well, everything... are also made there. But it's TikTok that's the focus?

Yep and Macbooks are made where?

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

I agree. As long as Meta is blocked from doing business in the EU.

And everywhere else!

 

[ninecows]

Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia…


or was it Eastasia?

It seems like we really would love a Great Perpetual War 😢

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Why is it terrible?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing but please tell me why its terrible?

TikTok is 1/1 following the recipe for behavioral addiction which is already having a detrimental impact on the predominantly developing brains that are using the app.

Yes, many apps and digital platforms exploit these vulnerabilities in the human brain/sensory system. But TikTok has taken it to an extreme.

They’ve done brain scans of Internet/video game/media addicts/phone(etc.) addicts and their brains patterns (reactions to visual input) shift away from normal brain patterns and get close to or completely identical to drug, sex or gamble addicts.

At its core, TikTok is essentially your classic slot machine but with perpetual visual/auditory stimulation that continuously adapts to show more of the content that gets the most watch time from the user.

If you think it’s completely benign that every person below 25 is glued to the same app for 6-12 hours a day then obviously I have no argument here.

My gripe with the app isn’t that it’s made by China but that it’s creating a generation of smartphone addicts.

TikTok would have been long gone before these privacy concerns if anyone listened to the research done on smartphones and behavioral addiction.

Have you ever read about the mice that get their brains wired up to a machine with a button they can press that releases dopamine in their bodies indefinitely without them having to move or do a single thing to get the “reward”? They press the button over and over again, more and more until they forget their other needs and their health withers away.

TikTok is an instantaneous, no effort, no payment dopamine trigger for humans that’s continuously being adapted to get better at making the user press the trigger again.

It’s completely terrible and I pray that ByteDance don’t sell their shares and that TikTok gets banned in the West permanently.

 

[xmarcuswildx]

Banned just in time for my kids to become the next social media generation soon.

Good. TikTok is a nightmare.