Heaptalk, Jakarta — ByteDance’s social media app TikTok threatened to be banned in the United States following the accusation of the superpower to TikTok’s parent company regarding the data collection of its users in the US.
“TikTok could live on, and people could do whatever they want, provided that separation exists. Instead of a ban, this matter can be considered a surgery designed to remove the tumor and thereby save the patient in the process,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House Select China committee, cited in the Guardian.
This possibility is getting clear after the House of Representatives issued a bill requiring TikTok’s parent company to sell this platform or face a total ban in a Biden-led country. In more detail, the policymaker passed this law by obtaining around 352 votes to 65, which stated the urgency of blocking TikTok if ByteDance still avoids diversifying its shares to the US company within the next six months after this bill was passed.
Previously, this superpower has alerted that the presence of TikTok poses a severe threat to its people. The American state of Montana is known to have implemented regulations prohibiting society from downloading the TikTok application, which prevailed in early 2024.
Commenting on the issue, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson of China Wang Wenbin, China believes that America has subjectively accused TikTok of threatening their national security without any concrete evidence.
As cited in BBC, “This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and harms the normal international economic and trade order. This decision will inevitably come back to bite the US itself,” Wang said.
TikTok has repeatedly emphasized that the company is free from Chinese influence and will not spread US user data with the Chinese government. To avoid the data being controlled by China’s government and retain the US market, ByteDance emphasized that US user data is not stored in the US and Singapore, where it is routed through US-based cloud infrastructure Oracle.
“I underline: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.” the CEO of TikTok, Shou Chew, affirmed.
