Opinion
The government of the USA brought in legislation over TikTok, and today president Biden signed it. TikTok USA now has nine months to divest itself from its Chinese Communist Party-controlled parent company ByteDance -- by January 19, the day before inauguration day.
In reaction, @tiktokpolicy complained, "This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail." Twitter quickly went into truth-check mode:
@michaelsobolik: The one word missing from this statement: 'divestment'. Because the legislation doesn't ban TikTok. And TikTok knows that. They don't want to talk about divestment, because it leads straight to ByteDance. Straight to the Chinese Communist Party.
@adamkovac: At this point, the bill is only a 'ban' if the Chinese government blocks TikTok from being sold to a US owner.
@djvlad: China is mad at the US banning TikTok when Google and YouTube have always been banned there. I would love to make chinese ad money from my YouTube videos but nooooooooo.
@nathanleamerdc: Speaking of rights, what are you doing to end the persecution of the Uighur people?
@rlheinrichs: Finally. This is a relief. It's the very least we should do to protect young ppl and defend ourselves from the PRC [People's Republic of Chine].
@michaelsobolik: Biden should celebrate this momentous achievement by deleting his TikTok account.
@munster_gene: I put the over-under at two days before China retaliates. If they go after $AAPL and $TSLA, the Tech Cold War is officially on.
Source: https://www.techmeme.com/240424/p33#a240424p33
Comments