by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
What happens when millions of TikTok influencers scream in horror all at once? On Wednesday, the worst fears of TikTok addicts were realized when the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban the distribution of TikTok in the U.S. if ByteDance does not sell its shares to someone else. If this bill becomes law, it is not certain that there is a U.S. buyer that would be willing to purchase those shares, and it is not certain that the Chinese government would be willing to allow ByteDance to sell those shares. So the fate of the platform is very much up in the air. 170 million Americans have accounts on TikTok, and 7 million small businesses use the platform. Needless to say, there are vast hordes of young people that are extremely upset about what Congress is trying to do, and lots of them will be voting in November.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
It was apparent that this bill had a tremendous amount of support, but I was surprised that so many lawmakers from both parties ended up voting for it…
The House on Wednesday passed legislation that could ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake in the massively popular social media platform.
The vote was 352 in favor and 65 opposed, underscoring its broad bipartisan support, with 197 Republicans and 155 Democrats voting to approve it. Fifteen Republicans and 50 Democrats voted against the bill. One Democrat voted “present.”
If you have not read the bill yet, you can find it right here. Prior to the vote, TikTok users absolutely flooded Congress with phone calls, but that didn’t work.
So now countless TikTok influencers are completely freaking out because the future of their favorite platform is very much in doubt…
Describing herself as a ‘panicked influencer’ in a video with almost 250K likes, one creator said: ‘We might have to part our ways and say farewell tomorrow because what the actual freak?’
Others noted the rare efficiency that Congress showed in passing the legislation, with one TikTok user saying it stands out compared to the ‘months and months to even get aid to people when there’s a hurricane.’
‘Somehow the gremlins in Congress just really got together and finally agreed on something.’
Another prominent influencer boldly proclaimed that “THIS is going to be the reason why I hate the federal government”…
‘When I’m old an miserable and telling my grandkids about all the reasons why I hate the world, THIS is going to be the reason why I hate the federal government,’ another influencer fumed.
According to CNN, if this bill actually becomes law TikTok will disappear from app stores in the U.S. if ByteDance chooses not to divest…
If enacted, the bill would give TikTok roughly five months to separate from ByteDance, or else app stores in the United States would be prohibited from hosting the app on their platforms.
App stores that violate the legislation could be fined based on the number of users of a banned app. The bill establishes fines of $5,000 per user of a banned app. So, in the case of TikTok, Apple and Google could potentially be on the hook for up to $850 billion in fines each.
It’s unclear if ByteDance would agree to sell or spin-off TikTok. If it did, the company could struggle to find an American buyer willing to shell out, despite the app’s popularity.
TikTok is worth an estimated $100 billion, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. And many major US tech companies already face fierce regulatory scrutiny that could prevent them from making such a major acquisition.
But of course even if TikTok was banned from app stores that would definitely not kill the platform.
The 170 million users that have already downloaded the app would still be able to use it, and new users would likely be able to download it using a VPN…
If TikTok were banned in the U.S., the hundred million plus users who have already downloaded the app would still likely be able to access it. New users would also potentially be able to download it using a virtual private network, or VPN.
Even with the app’s removal from app stores and experts expect that TikTok’s resourceful U.S. fans would still find ways to continue using it.
And at this point it is very unclear whether this bill will be able to get through the U.S. Senate…
The TikTok’s bill in the Senate is uncertain, as the Senate is unlikely to pass the bill as is.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, “I think it’s more than likely that we will take up their bill and amend it and say we’ve come up with some areas where we think it needs improvement. My concern is that if you try to deal with this by name, you’re playing a game of Whack a Mole, because what’s TikTok today, next week it’s TokTik or TicTak or whatever.”
“We do things slowly over here, and this takes time,” he added.
Indeed, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold requires consensus to pass legislation.
Joe Biden has said that he will sign the bill if it eventually gets through the Senate.
But would he really want to alienate millions of young voters just before the presidential election in November?
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
