United States | News & Politics

7108 readers

340 users here now

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

pangyuehung@lemmy.ml

yogthos@lemmy.ml

ACLU Slams House for Latest Plan to Ban TikTok and Stifle Free Speech (scheerpost.com)

submitted 6 months ago by shreddy_scientist@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That just ain’t happening, but forcing it to divest from Bytedance is much more realistic. And that’s exactly what should happen.

A quick read through the first bill, HR 7521: "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act", shows that they explicitly call out divesting as an option. If ByteDance would rather shut down than sell, that's their call.

[–] IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If Bytedance shutters TikTok, a multi-billion dollar operation, that's proof positive they are hiding some heinous shit.

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

I wouldn't quite go that far. ByteDance would be balancing shuttering TikTok in the US with selling it off worldwide, likely at a reduced price. Then there's the Chinese TikTok equivalent that ByteDance owns that seems to run off the same code base. They would certainly want to retain that. The US has the largest user base, but it might be the best business decision to not sell off TikTok. It still has potential elsewhere.