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The United States is the closest it's ever been to banning TikTok.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted in the affirmative (352-65) on a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S., unless the Chinese-owned company agrees to sell itself to a non-Chinese buyer. If there's no sale, the bill would block Apple and Google from offering TikTok in their respective app stores and also prevent any new updates for the app, which would eventually make it difficult to use.
The measure, which sped through the House after being fast-tracked by leadership, now heads to the Senate for deliberation. The hurdles in the Senate may be higher, as some senators, like John Cornyn (R-Texas), have expressed interest in amending the measure. Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have shown that banning TikTok is an issue they can agree on.
"We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok -- a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company, ByteDance, remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party," Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) wrote in a joint statement. Both senators head the Senate Committee on Intelligence.
One major bone lawmakers have to pick with TikTok is that any Chinese-owned company could be ordered by the Chinese government to turn over user data. Lawmakers argue that access to American user data, which provides glimpses into a user's behavioral patterns and interests, could make it easier for foreign governments to run campaigns to influence that behavior.
The app's ability to draw users in with its custom -- and highly addictive -- algorithm has prompted cybersecurity experts like Rob Joyce, who heads the country's National Security Agency, to call it a "Trojan horse."
Its usage is also widespread: Data from TikTok shows that about 150 million Americans use the app, nearly half of the country. For that reason, it's become a great marketing platform, especially for the 7 million small businesses that TikTok says use the app.
It's not hard to understand why. For one thing, going viral on the app can help draw in hordes of new customers and subsequently generate sales. That was the case for Abby Michaelsen, a Los Angeles small-business owner who believes one viral TikTok of hers generated $10,000 in additional sales.
Seventy-eight percent of entrepreneurs saw their earnings increase after advertising on the platform, according to a January 2023 survey from Capterra, an Arlington, Virginia-based online marketplace vendor owned by Gartner. Though the app has boosted businesses, founders shouldn't get too comfortable leaning on it to drive sales given its wobbly future in the U.S.
"[T]hese platforms have made decisions in the past to change how they function and have had massive impact on small businesses," said Adam Marrè, the chief information security officer at Arctic Wolf Networks, a cybersecurity company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. "[D]epending on a social-media platform for your business can be unreliable, regardless of if the change comes from the social-media platform itself or a government regulation."
But TikTok is here to stay if it's able to find a buyer that can divest the app from its Chinese influence. Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary raised his hand to do so earlier this week.
While the timeline is unclear on how quickly the Senate will take up the TikTok bill, President Joe Biden himself has said he'd sign off on it should the measure pass both Congressional chambers. So if your small business is heavily focused on TikTok, it'd be wise to prepare for a future where that app isn't a go-to.
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The House Just Approved a Vote to Ban TikTok
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14.03.2024
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The United States is the closest it's ever been to banning TikTok.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted in the affirmative (352-65) on a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S., unless the Chinese-owned company agrees to sell itself to a non-Chinese buyer. If there's no sale, the bill would block Apple and Google from offering TikTok in their respective app stores and also prevent any new updates for the app, which........
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