Written By Soham Rajput (Grade 12)
In an important development, the United States Congress has passed a rule, necessitating the platform owned by Byte Dance, TikTok, and the Chinese company to sever ties. Even Democrats and Republicans are legislating together, with 352 representatives being voted for and 65 against the bill, which is notable in Washington’s politically divided environment.
TikTok, a short video app that has ensnared over 170 million US users, is now on everyone’s lips owing to concerns about its threat to data security. The Chinese owners of the app are the subject of the criticisms. US officials are concerned that the government could evaluate the user data from this tool and misguide the people through propaganda and If you want to improve this sentence, please reply to us and we will give you feedback. The bill aims to address these concerns by mandating TikTok to divest its assets or face a ban on its operations within the country.
China quickly expressed hostility to it, calling it U.S. bullying, a “totally wrong move”. Chinese foreign ministry expounded that the evidence of no national security threats for TikTok case was not brought forward, and in the meantime warned that the US might suffer further consequences. Spokesperson of Chinese government Wang Wenbin reformulated the position of American government as cases of bullying, and expressed worry on the resources of market operations, engagement of the investors, and global general economic structure.
If the clause is passed, then TikTok would have to liquidate all its assets and become accessible by a US based company – but mostly it would result the sale of the platform. This move aims to ensure that user data, particularly sensitive information belonging to children and adults, remains under American ownership rather than accessible to the Chinese government.
US officials, among whom White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is of note, stress that the final goal is to take TikTok away from Chinese ownership, not a sweeping embargo. Sullivan views identifying as the one to rule over whether TikTok as a platform should be owned by US companies or China as a paramount concern. Constant struggle covers the topic field that consists of data safety issues and the abuse possibility.
TikTok is retorting by criticizing the legislation proposed by saying that it is not fair to infringe on the freedom of expression of millions of Americans. Hereby the company mentioned that it has not confronted with any proper documentation that directly proves that the security threat is Rooted in the Chinese belonging, or it has not been permitted to narrate its own side of the story. Mr. Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, will appear before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in his effort to address all the rumors and misconceptions that are close to scattering like so many butterflies, and provide an outline of how TikTok runs as well.
On the whole, the bill passing of US House of Representatives marks a huge milestone which is added to the ongoing drama related to TikTok in the nation. When TikTok creates a face to face the legislation TikTok’s future in US will be determined regarding its ability to comply with divestment requirements or a possible ban. The situation is indicative of the tightrope walking between the national security issues and the guiding principles of freedom of expression as the situation develops with relation to online regulations.
Featured Image Courtesy – Reuters
