Home Tech How would a Tiktok ban work in the US?

How would a Tiktok ban work in the US?

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How would a Tiktok ban work in the US?

The US Supreme Court on Friday will hear arguments from TikTok and its owner, China-based ByteDance, seeking to block a law signed by Joe Biden that will ban the short-form video app starting Jan. 19, a unless he gets rid of ByteDance. TikTok has said the divestment is “not technologically, commercially or legally possible” and requested a court order to suspend the ban during the legal process.

More than 170 million Americans use TikTok. The company’s lawyers argue that banning the app violates the First Amendment rights of those tens of millions of users; The argument did not sway a federal appeals court, which upheld the ban-or-sale bill in December. Congress passed the legislation with a bipartisan majority in April. U.S. lawmakers fear China will spread propaganda through the app, although they have not provided documentation of such manipulation. Donald Trump, who first advocated banning the app in 2020, is now opposed after finding a large audience there during the presidential election. He has filed a brief on behalf of TikTok to suspend the ban until he takes office on January 20.

This is what could happen on January 19.


What about the application?

New users will not be able to download TikTok from the app stores and existing users will not be able to update the app, because the law prohibits any entity from facilitating the download or maintenance of the TikTok app. In a Dec. 13 letter, U.S. lawmakers told Apple and Alphabet’s Google, which operate the two major mobile app stores, that they should be prepared to remove TikTok from their stores on Jan. 19.

Cloud services provider Oracle could see some disruption to its work with TikTok. Oracle hosts the data of American TikTok users on its servers, reviews the app’s source code and delivers it to app stores. Google declined to comment, while Oracle and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.


How will users be affected?

Experts say TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users will likely still be able to use the app because it’s already downloaded on their phones. But over time, without software and security updates, the application will become unusable.

Some users have begun posting TikTok videos instructing others on how to use virtual private networks (VPNs), which mask an Internet user’s location, as a way to bypass the potential ban.

Content creators who have built businesses off of their TikTok followers are preparing for the worst. Nadya Okamoto, who has 4.1 million followers and founded August, a menstrual products brand, said TikTok helped her business grow organically through viral videos. A TikTok ban could force it and other small businesses to spend more on marketing and increase their costs.

“It’s very stressful,” he said. “If TikTok disappears, we’ll be fine, but it will be a hard blow.”


What about TikTok employees?

TikTok’s 7,000 employees in the United States are still trying to figure out their fate. After a U.S. appeals court upheld the sell-or-ban law on Dec. 6, pessimism spread among staff who began to worry about layoffs, one current employee said.

But the company has continued to make job offers for new positions, prompting some confused job seekers to ask for advice on Blind, an anonymous forum for employees to talk about companies.

A user posted on Blind that he received a job offer from ByteDance in San Jose, California, starting in February. Others commented on the post, advising the user to accept the offer and use it as leverage in other interviews.

“I signed the offer and will wait and see how the situation develops,” said the user on the Blind post.


What will advertisers do?

TikTok’s U.S. ad revenue is expected to total $12.3 billion in 2024, according to research firm Emarketer, and while that figure is much lower than that of Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, advertisers say that TikTok’s dedicated user base means some brands will try to advertise beyond January 19.

“The current assumption is that the app might not be upgradeable, but you will see a surge in usage,” said Craig Atkinson, CEO of digital marketing agency Code3. The app’s e-commerce feature, TikTok Shop, which allows users to buy products directly from videos, does not have a direct competitor that advertisers can easily switch to, Atkinson said, adding that his agency was signing new contracts with clients. to create TikTok Shop campaigns even starting at the end of December.

Some advertisers may continue spending beyond Jan. 19 on TikTok and reassess if the app experiences a decline in usage or performance, said Jason Lee, executive vice president of brand safety at media agency Horizon Media.


Are there potential buyers?

TikTok has repeatedly said that ByteDance cannot sell it. That hasn’t deterred billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, who said he had secured $20 billion in verbal commitments from a consortium of investors to bid for TikTok.

McCourt has not yet spoken to ByteDance, but said he believes the supreme court will uphold the law requiring the divestment of TikTok, after which the parent company would be more open to sale discussions.

McCourt and his team have had “preliminary conversations” with members of the incoming administration of Donald Trump, who had attempted to ban TikTok during his first term in the White House but has since changed his mind, and are also searching for a CEO to lead the company. application. McCourt’s business plan for TikTok includes migrating the app to open source technology and earning revenue through e-commerce and licensing data for artificial intelligence training.


How did a statewide ban work?

The state of Montana banned TikTok in May 2023, planning to make the app inaccessible to state residents on January 1, 2024 before a US judge blocked the ban. Like the federal ban, Montana’s targeted the App Store, but unlike the national ban, the state threatened Apple and Google with fines of $10,000 a day as long as they made TikTok available.


What will China do?

Under Chinese law, officials in Beijing would likely need to approve such a large sale for it to go ahead. In March, China expressed its opposition to a fire sale, which, together with TikTok’s declaration of the impossibility of divestment, makes the outcome unlikely.

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