Everyone knows Douyin, and many people don't know about Tiktok, the overseas version of Douyin.
But Tiktok is no less popular in North America than Douyin is in China.
But on April 24, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden just signed a bill requiring TikTok to be required to
The U.S. Congress passed a bill this week that requires TikTok's parent company "ByteDance" to sell Tiktok within 270 days, that is, by January 19, 2025, otherwise the popular app in the United States will be banned from use.
Picture from The Globe and Mail, April 2024
The wood is beautiful in the forest, and the wind will destroy it!
Tiktok's encounter today is due to the fact that it is developing too fast in the United States!
2018年9月,TikTok的下载量力压Facebook、Instagram、Youtube和Snapchat。
In February 2019, it surpassed one billion cumulative downloads worldwide.
In September 2019, it ranked first in total downloads on Apple's App Store and Google Play.
In April 2020, according to Sensor Tower data, ByteDance's TikTok and Douyin have exceeded 2 billion downloads worldwide.
Obviously, in today's mobile Internet era where traffic is king, having such a huge number of users also means that TikTok's influence in the global market continues to deepen. And some of the most familiar football stars, movie stars, and singers have basically all opened TikTok accounts and carried out formal team operations.
In the minds of some American politicians, Tiktok is a new media platform that can profoundly influence the American people, and Tiktok must be in the hands of American companies.
Thus, probably the most naked robbery in the history of mankind began!
图自CIity News, April 2024
According to multiple media reports in the United States and Canada, the bill signed by Biden gives TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, 270 days to sell. The deadline for the sale is set for January 19, 2025.
But the bill also stipulates that if Biden believes TikTok has made progress on the sale, he can extend the deadline by another 90 days, all of which is counted up, giving TikTo about a year to make a choice before facing a ban.
But according to media reports, Tiktok does not intend to give in.
Just after Biden signed the bill, TikTok threatened legal action against the bill. In a video posted on TikTok, the company's CEO, Zhou Shouzi, told users: "Rest assured: we won't be leaving.
Picture from CNN, April 2024
Zhou Shouzi said that Tiktok will sue the U.S. government to fight for rights in court. And both the facts and the constitution are on the side of Tiktok, there is hope for victory.
Back on March 13, 2024, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress passed a bill on the divestiture of TikTok, a social software owned by ByteDance, with 352 votes in favor and 65 votes against.
The core content of the divestiture bill is to force ByteDance to sell TikTok, otherwise Apple, Google and other app stores will be forced to stop hosting services for TikTok, and TikTok will not be able to do business with other American companies.
According to U.S. media reports, the full name of the bill is the Act on Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Controlling Applications Act, H.R. 7521. The bill received more than 75 percent support in the House of Representatives, which means that the bill crossed the bipartisan line and actually received more than two-thirds of the vote.
Sure enough, after the collusion of the two parties, the bill was finally passed by the Senate on other issues, and Biden also fulfilled his previous promise that as long as the Senate and House of Representatives passed, he would sign the bill.
As a result, the biggest robbery in history has become a reality.
According to media reports, Nadine Farid Johnson, an expert at Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute, said that the TikTok ban could be dismissed by the court.
The reason is that the Supreme Court's long-standing precedent protects Americans' First Amendment rights, and the TikTok ban violates Americans' right to freedom of speech, and there is no real return. Adversaries can still buy sensitive data on Americans from data brokers on the open market.
Litigation may result in this measure being temporarily blocked for the duration of the lawsuit, which could last for years. But if the court refuses to issue a temporary injunction, TikTok will have to choose between selling and suddenly dying.
Canadian media also pointed out that if the US ban is passed, Canada and other countries are bound to follow suit.
As of 2023, TikTok has set off a huge wave of short video traffic in more than 100 countries around the world. TikTok has surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and other old social media giants in terms of downloads, and the momentum is very fast. By 2024, the number of daily active users of this popular short video app will exceed 1 billion. The practical significance for American politics is that Tiktok has been able to directly affect all aspects of American people's lives.
Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, the bill's sponsor, said: "TikTok will either be divested or lose access to users in the United States. Before the bill was voted on, TikTok reportedly pushed a post to its users encouraging them to contact members of the U.S. Congress to oppose the ban, but the move apparently angered U.S. lawmakers.
Some media have also pointed out that it is powerful and traditional for the United States to directly launch "bullying" against foreign companies in such an almost "rogue" way. Since the 70s of the last century, similar laws to H.R. 7521 have been passed for banking, shipping, radio, aviation, energy, etc.
According to Chinanews.com, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin hosted a regular press conference on the 24th. A reporter asked about the passage of a TikTok-related bill by the U.S. Senate.
Wang Wenbin said: My colleagues and I, as well as the spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce, have previously clarified China's principled position on the passage of the TikTok-related bill by the US Congress, which you can consult.
On March 13, 2024, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin held a regular press conference. CNN reporter asked whether the House of Representatives of the United States Congress is about to vote on the relevant bill to ban TikTok from operating in the United States. Do you have any comment?
Wang Wenbin said that in recent years, although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has never stopped suppressing TikTok.
The Tiktok incident is getting bigger and bigger, but it's far from over, so let's wait and see where things play out.