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A bill submitted to the US House of Representatives last week proposed that ByteDance sell its popular social network TikTok, and if this does not happen, access to TikTok from the USA should be blocked. This proposal, briefly called the “TikTok Law”, was accepted by a large majority in the US House of Representatives. While 362 members of the parliament supported the law, 35 members voted against it.
However, the vote in the US House of Representatives does not mean that the process is over. In order for the law to be fully approved by the US Congress, it must also be approved by the Senate. It is known that there are senators such as Rand Paul who oppose the law.
After approval by the Senate, the law will come before US President Joe Biden for final signature. Biden recently announced that he would approve this law if it came before him. At this point, it is useful to note that Biden opened a TikTok account for his new election campaign.
In 2020, many American companies aspired to purchase TikTok’s global operations. These included giants such as Microsoft and Oracle. However, Chinese officials opposed this sale. Now it is known that Activision Blizzard’s former CEO Bobby Kotick is interested in TikTok. It is also rumored that Kotick met with potential investors, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
If TikTok doesn’t sell, it may be removed from the App Store and Google Play Store
However, after four years, it seems to have returned to the same point. If the proposal becomes law, ByteDance would have to sell TikTok within six months. If sales do not occur within this period, American companies may be prohibited from providing hosting services to TikTok or including them in app stores. This means TikTok may be removed from the App Store and Google Play Store.
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However, it should be noted that there is still a long time to complete the TikTok process. At this point, it seems certain that ByteDance will pursue all legal means. The company had previously objected to a ban on TikTok in the US state of Montana in federal court and managed to reverse the decision. This process, which is of great importance for the fate of TikTok, one of the world’s most popular social networks, in the USA and indeed on a global scale, seems to be one of the most important agenda items in the technology world in the coming period.