TikTok's Ban Bill Nightmare Is Just Beginning

Forbes

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that will force China-based social media giant ByteDance to sell its crown jewel TikTok. If it does not, the app will be banned in the United States—an unprecedented move that would be the first instance of this country prohibiting a foreign-owned social media app.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2024/04/25/tiktok-ban-bill-bytedance-divest-china-biden/?sh=7e8fa37f55d7  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, April 26.

00:05 Today on Forbes, TikTok's ban bill nightmare is just beginning.

00:11 On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that will force China-based social

00:16 media giant ByteDance to sell its crown jewel, TikTok.

00:21 If it does not, the app will be banned in the United States.

00:25 An unprecedented move that would be the first instance of this country prohibiting a foreign-owned

00:29 social media app.

00:32 Biden and the White House have emphasized that banning TikTok is not the intention of

00:36 the legislation, and that instead, they simply want the app to keep operating here under

00:40 a new American owner.

00:42 Case in point?

00:43 The Biden campaign recently joined TikTok and plans to continue using it to reach voters.

00:49 But a consensus is beginning to emerge that unraveling TikTok from ByteDance will be all

00:54 but impossible.

00:56 News reporting on the platform, used by 170 million Americans, has also repeatedly shown

01:01 just how entangled the two companies are, with much of TikTok running today on ByteDance

01:07 tools, that is, its own versions of Microsoft Office, G Suite, Salesforce and the like,

01:12 built years ago by engineers in China.

01:15 That has given staff at both companies, across the U.S. and China, broad access to sensitive

01:20 information about American TikTok users, TikTok creators, TikTok advertisers and celebrities,

01:26 politicians and other public figures on the app.

01:29 Employees, too, have described extensive overlap between the companies.

01:34 Former TikTok employee Joel Carter, who says he was wrongfully terminated in August, told

01:39 Forbes, "I will say that no mistake that ByteDance and TikTok are one and the same.

01:44 It is clear from your first day, through office documents, products, systems, processes, office

01:50 signage and even your paycheck, that individuals are ByteDance employees."

01:56 And the argument that the new law is not, in fact, about a divestiture, is one that

02:00 TikTok has been making all along.

02:03 In a viral video posted to the platform after Biden signed the law Wednesday, TikTok CEO

02:08 Shou Chu said, "Make no mistake.

02:11 This is a ban.

02:12 A ban on TikTok.

02:13 And a ban on you and your voice.

02:16 Politicians may say otherwise, but don't get confused.

02:19 Many who sponsored the bill admit a TikTok ban is their ultimate goal."

02:24 The passage of the law targeting TikTok, which was tacked onto a broader package providing

02:29 foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, is the close of one chapter, but the start

02:35 of the next.

02:36 What is likely to be a protracted legal battle over the future of the wildly popular app.

02:42 Michael Beckerman, TikTok's top policy leader for the Americas, wrote to staff last week

02:47 in an internal memo obtained by Forbes, "This is the beginning, not the end of this long

02:52 process."

02:53 He called the bill "unconstitutional" and "unprecedented."

02:58 He added, "We'll continue to fight, as this legislation is a clear violation of the First

03:04 Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans on TikTok and would have devastating consequences

03:09 for the 7 million small businesses that use TikTok to reach new customers, sell their

03:14 products and create new jobs.

03:16 Together, let's do our best to stay composed and focus on the business."

03:22 Former National Security Agency General Counsel Glenn Gerstel said that while China and TikTok

03:27 present potential national security threats, the law passed by the White House and Congress

03:32 is "really bad public policy," likely to land in the crosshairs of the Supreme Court, and

03:38 that the divestiture it demands is "economically unrealistic."

03:43 He told Forbes, "There's no way to take the U.S. piece out of TikTok and sell it to someone.

03:49 China is never going to allow the algorithms that make TikTok what it is, the sophisticated

03:54 app that became the world's most popular app in just two years, to have a new non-Chinese

03:59 owner, which would then completely kill the value of the rest of it.

04:03 There's no world in which this makes economic sense, and no one's going to buy a TikTok

04:07 in the U.S. that doesn't have the algorithm."

04:10 He added, "The very thing that makes it valuable is exactly that which is not for sale."

04:17 For full coverage, check out Alexandra S. Levine and Emily Baker White's piece on Forbes.com.

04:24 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:26 Thanks for tuning in.

04:27 [music]

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