This will they, won’t they thing going on with TikTok is getting a bit tiresome. When then-President Joe Biden signed into law that ByteDance had to either sell TikTok to an American company or be banned, it was slated to go dark on inauguration day 2025. Trump put the ban on hold and said that the company had 90-days to find an American buyer or be banned.
He paused the ban two more times.
According to The Information, ByteDance is reportedly making an American version of the app in hopes to appease the US government. Of course, Trump claims that if they don’t have an American buyer by the middle of this month, they may face a ban.
Of course, during the run up to the election, many TikTok investors “donated” a lot of money to his campaign, which was obviously to buy favor that he would hold off on the ban. The checks cleared and he held off on the ban.
American TikTok App Coming this fall
Th new version of the app (M2) will be available in app stores on September 5. The original version of the app (M1) will no longer be available after that. However, those that refuse to download the new version will have access to the old app until March 5 of next year.
What is unclear is why would ByteDance build an American version of the app if the possibility of the Chinese government signing off on the sale seems remote?
This whole standing up against China is a smokescreen. “China will get all your personal data!” Yet, during a hearing of the antitrust case against Meta, it was reported that Mark Zuckerberg was willing to allow China to have access if they allowed Meta to expand within China.
So, my continuous question is: if our personal data is so important for a Chinese company, why are American companies allowed to access it and sell it? In many cases, they would sell it to China. This is where two unlikely politicians, AOC and Marjorie Taylor-Greene, both agree. Maybe we should look at the collection and sale of personal information across the board. Not just the boogeyman of the week.