Tiktok | Seventh time telling the truth? This is how the US is trying to ban Tiktok again

United States is again trying to ban the social media service Tiktok. This is already the seventh attempt, but this time the bill was passed in the House of Representatives with a roar and remarkably fast schedule.

Will the United States now succeed in its goal? HS went through the key questions about Tiktok's banning plans.

What happened on Wednesday?

of the United States the House of Representatives approved the bill on Tiktok on Wednesday with an overwhelming majority.

The law would force Tiktok's parent company, Chinese-owned Bytedance, to sell Tiktok to an American operator within six months or face being blocked from using it in the United States.

The bill is loosely translated as “protecting Americans from applications owned by foreign adversaries”. The name tells the essence of the bill: lawmakers see Tiktok as a threat to national security because its parent company is Chinese.

There are two concerns. According to lawmakers, the Chinese government could demand access to Tiktok's US users' data or force the app to promote Chinese propaganda.

Tiktok itself has repeatedly said that the Chinese government has not made such demands, and that it would not comply with them if the government did.

Why do you want to ban Tiktok right now?

US media calls this legal initiative a surprise. “A blitzkrieg that suddenly materialized after years of failed negotiations,” describes The Washington Post.

This time, efforts to ban Tiktok were fueled especially by the war in Gaza. US lawmakers have accused the platform of fueling anti-Israel sentiment.

What happens next?

House of Representatives after the law is approved, it goes to the senate for consideration.

In the Senate, a legal initiative can cause, for example, concerns about freedom of competition and freedom of speech.

If the Senate passed the law, it would be transferred to the President Joe Biden to be confirmed. Biden has said he would support the bill if it ends up on his desk. Biden himself recently joined Tiktok for his re-election campaign.

How has Tiktok reacted?

According to The Wall Street Journal's sources the speed of processing the legal initiative surprised Tiktok.

Last week, the company urged its 170 million US users to contact their representatives and tell them why Tiktok is important to them. This is what users also did: According to The Washington Post some agents were getting about 20 calls a minute and had to shut down the phone lines.

The tactic may have backfired on Tiktok, as the volume of calls irritated the representatives and, in a way, validated their concerns: Tiktok has the power to influence US politics.

“It's shameful that members of Congress complain about hearing from their own constituents,” Tiktok wrote in X.

Who could buy the app?

In the legislative initiative require Bytedance to sell Tiktok to an American operator within six months, if the initiative also passes in the Senate.

On Thursday, the former finance minister Steven Mnuchin announced that it was assembling an investor group that could buy Tiktok. Mnuchin served as Treasury Secretary Donald Trump's during.

It remains to be seen whether Mnuchin or the companies have deep enough pockets to buy the app. Bytedance has recently estimated Tiktok to be worth more than 200 billion dollars.

For example, the potential purchase intentions of Meta and Google could be prevented by the competition law, because they want to prevent the technology giants from growing even bigger. The Chinese government has also announced its opposition to forced sales.

Banning the application would especially benefit the main competitor Meta. Reels, the short videos of its own Instagram, are practically a copy of Tiktok, and a ban would probably drive users to them.

Trump, who previously tried to ban Tiktok, has surprisingly stated that he does not support the initiative because it would rain into Meta's pocket.

“If we get rid of Tiktok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck double their business,” he wrote on the Truth Social platform referring to Meta's CEO to Mark Zuckerberg.