This move seems to be a safeguard of national security, but in fact it is a coveting of economic interests, exposing the United States' desire for control of TikTok.
As the bill is introduced in the Senate, a battle over TikTok intensifies on the American political scene. This practice of forced buying and selling not only violates the principles of democracy, but also shows the greed and panic of the United States for TikTok.
After all, TikTok, a platform loved by 170 million American netizens, contributes $24 billion to the US economy every year, and such a temptation is really hard for the United States to resist.
Some heavyweights in American politics have also unabashedly expressed their covetousness for TikTok. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin bluntly called TikTok a great company that should be owned by an American company. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear when explaining the bill that the purpose of this move is to seize the ownership of TikTok. White House spokesmen have also said that they do not want to see TikTok banned, implying that what the United States wants is actually control of TikTok.
Perhaps, the United States itself knows very well that this dream does not seem so easy to achieve. Although the Senate may pass the "ban TikTok bill", the sale of TikTok is not something that Chinese automatic skipping companies can say on their own.
However, the United States could not resist the pressure from Israel.
Israel has a powerful lobbying power in the U.S. political system and has an important influence on the direction of U.S. policy. Since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, mainstream social media in the United States has supported Israel, but TikTok has become an exception. The dissemination of content about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the TikTok platform has broken the monopoly of American public opinion and allowed more people to see the truth. This has made the Israeli side strongly hostile to TikTok, and then pressured the United States to block TikTok.
However, the U.S. government has been quite embarrassed to deal with this issue. On the one hand, they want to cater to Israel's needs and maintain friendly relations between the two countries, and on the other hand, they do not want to offend China, an important economic partner. Therefore, the United States can only adopt a compromise approach - neither completely banning TikTok nor giving up the struggle for control of TikTok. This paradoxical approach not only greatly reduces the international image of the United States, but also puts it in a passive position in the battle for TikTok.
To sum up, the dream of the United States to grab TikTok has been shattered again. Although they tried to push for the passage of the "TikTok Ban Act" through means such as bundling, these means pale in the face of reality. TikTok's success is not accidental, and the value and innovative spirit behind it cannot be easily replaced by any country. Therefore, the United States should give up its coveting of TikTok, respect the laws of the market and the principle of fair competition, and face the challenges of globalization with an open and inclusive attitude.