TikTok says US depriving Americans of free speech amid bill to ban
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Tiktok says that the bill, if it goes into effect, would harm businesses, impacting the livelihoods of numerous creators nationwide.
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Fans sit under a TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, April 14, 2023, in New York. (AP)
In a statement on Thursday, TikTok took a jab at the US government for trying to rid 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to freedom of speech after a bill was approved by the House committee to ban TikTok in the US, only if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not part from the platform within six months.
"This legislation has a predetermined outcome: A total ban of TikTok in the United States. The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression," TikTok said.
The platform stressed that the bill going into effect would affect and harm businesses while taking the audience away from artists and impacting the livelihoods of numerous creators nationwide.
Read more: Algorithm isn't biased; users are overwhelmingly Pro-Palestine: TikTok
Targeting TikTok
This follows the advancement of the bill on Thursday by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which voted 50-0 for the Prohibition of Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, targeting social media apps like TikTok, and the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, intended to block data brokers from sharing sensitive US citizens' information with foreign adversaries.
The video app revealed that it has proposed an agreement to route and store all US user traffic and data in a United States Data Security (USDS) division with the servers being maintained and audited by Oracle Corporation.
The app also came under severe attack from within the Democratic and Republican parties and was called a "surveillance tool" for China.
TikTok has constantly denied sharing data with the Chinese government, and has stated that it would not do so if requested.
TikTok competitors' shares would skyrocket
The banning of TikTok in the US could leave a market worth around $431 billion to be tapped by three American tech giants, as Washington's pressure mounts over the social media app, according to a report by Forbes.
Bernstein, a Wall Street private wealth management company, informed its clients that prohibiting ByteDance's TikTok in the country will skyrocket the stock prices of Alphabet, Meta, and Snap, as social media users will scramble to find another platform to fill their needs. “Who wins? Everyone,” Bernstein said in its note referring to the three American corps.
Shou Zik Chew, TikTok's CEO, faced relentless questioning from US lawmakers, claiming that it gathers user data and transfers them to the Chinese government, with Chew telling Congressmen "ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government and is a private company."
Read more: UK seeking to possibly ban social media use for kids under 16
"We believe what's needed are clear transparent rules that apply broadly to all tech companies -- ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns," he added.
