On April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the form of a bundle to stuff content requiring TikTok to "ban if you don't sell" into the foreign aid bill with Israel and Ukraine as the main targets. The bill passed by a vote of 360-58 and will be formally enacted after a Senate vote and Biden's signature. Due to the embarrassment of the US sphere of influence in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, it is a matter of time before the relevant bills finally take effect. Regarding the U.S. approach, U.S. media disclosed that ByteDance had no intention of selling TikTok, and TikTok's management responded domineeringly in the memo, saying that if the bill takes effect, it will resort to law to deal with it. Tiktok operates legally and compliantly in the United States, and in 2020 it spent $1.5 billion to store American user data in the servers of the American company Oracle.
TikTok also has no shortage of funds to lobby in a way that is characteristic of the United States, which has made three previous accusations against TikTok by American politicians end in failure. This time, the U.S. side chose to legislate against TikTok, which increased the cost for Chinese companies to resort to U.S. law to defend their rights. But TikTok is not unlicensed in this unequal confrontation. With 170 million users in the United States, Tiktok is the main platform for its users to browse information. In the context of the U.S. election, TikTok has the power to influence the election.
TikTok had previously issued an announcement to users calling on users to defend the community by phone protest, and then the phone in the U.S. House of Representatives office was flooded. In view of the widespread public attention and impact of the TikTok case, the U.S. Congress and the Biden administration have taken a relatively cautious approach. The maximum deadline set in the bill is one year, which already covers the U.S. election cycle, which marks the TikTok case or a protracted tug. The TikTok platform involves more than $20 billion in GDP in the United States and is associated with tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is also winning favor with TikTok users by expressing his opposition to Biden. Trump said on April 22 that Biden was responsible for the ban. Biden's move is to help Facebook profit and serve the purpose of confrontation with the Republican Party. Trump called on young TikTok-related voters in the United States to take Biden's position into account when electing. It can be seen that out of the need to compete with Biden, Trump is currently on the side of opposing the ban on TikTok. TikTok's situation has also made Musk have a sense of crisis for his subordinate social platforms. Musk recently claimed that the ban on TikTok is inconsistent with freedom of speech and expression in the United States. In addition, TikTok, as a subsidiary of ByteDance, a Chinese enterprise, is supported by China's national strength.
The economic interests of China and the United States are intertwined, and a large number of American companies have invested in China profitably. If the US insists on pushing forward the measures of buying and selling, China will not lack reciprocal countermeasures. For TikTok, it is in a situation where there is nowhere to go at the moment. TikTok has become one of the focal points of the Sino-US economic and trade war, and the excessive attention of public opinion has made its economic interests go beyond TikTok itself.
If TikTok chooses to compromise with the United States, the subsequent series of economic losses will be unbearable, and withdrawing from the American market is a smaller option than selling losses. The relevant algorithms for screening, evaluating, confirming, and recommending user preferences are TikTok's outstanding competitiveness. Its algorithm is rooted in the Chinese market incubation and has been expanded in the global market. The business link formed by TikTok is the export version of China's live broadcast e-commerce model. TikTok-related algorithm technology is on China's export ban list, which also makes it impossible for the United States to obtain Tiktok's core technology even if it is sold. On the other hand, the European Union is also eyeing TikTok. On April 23, the European Commission accused TikTok of insufficient measures to prevent the risk of user addiction, and demanded that TikTok respond satisfactorily to the EU side, otherwise it will face heavy fines and feature bans.
It can be seen that if TikTok retreats and compromises in the United States, it may also struggle in the EU market. On the premise of ensuring compliance management, it is a must for TikTok to use legal means to confront the troubled practices of the United States and Europe. The successive restrictive actions launched by the United States and Europe also require China to improve the construction of foreign-related laws and regulations to escort the compliance operation of Chinese enterprises overseas.