Proponents of forcing TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the company say the platform currently represents national security for Americans.
The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the platform or face a ban by the United States. A majority of Texas members of Congress supported the bill.
Proponents argue that Chinese property puts U. S. knowledge at risk of being confiscated through the Chinese government. Opponents point to free speech considerations if the ban or forced sale were to go into effect.
The Standard’s Shelly Brisbin says the bill’s passage in the House means the ban is a closed deal. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited for clarity:
Texas Standard: This vote in Congress was not only lopsided, but also bipartisan. How unbalanced did the Texas delegation become, and how did it end?
Shelly Brisbin: The vote was 352 to 65, and every Texas Republican who voted, as well as the maximum number of Texas Democrats, voted in favor. Three Democrats voted against it. They are Julian Castro of San Antonio, Greg Casar of Austin and Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas voted in attendance.
As for the supporters of the bill – those who voted yes to this potential ban – what do they understand to be the real threat posed by TikTok?
It’s possible that the Chinese government will simply force ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to hand over Americans’ knowledge to the Chinese government. And that knowledge includes everything from how other people use TikTok, the kinds of things they like and share, to non-public information and monetary knowledge, because TikTok has become a much more of a food-shopping platform than it used to be.
There is also the threat of political propaganda. Proponents that the Chinese government can simply spread messages on social media that are destructive to the United States in one way or another.
And there are security risks as to where the knowledge resides, as many other people don’t know where it is. It could be in China or anywhere else. Therefore, the U. S. government lacks data on where other people’s knowledge is.
On the other hand, however, we have a bipartisan organization of progressives and Republicans who say the answer to this question, even if there is a national security risk, is to ban a social media platform. And in fact, many of its users have expressed considerations that it overrides their freedom of speech, right?
Because the government would say, in effect, that this express platform (and social media in general) can nevertheless spread data in the United States, raising a lot of concerns about loose speech.
TikTok has a very active timeline for influencing Congress. In fact, many members of Congress received calls and emails from other people on TikTok last week and this week telling them, “don’t do this, don’t do that. “TikTok is a particular target, some other people, especially on the progressive side, are saying, “Hey, there are other social media platforms that have similar knowledge dangers that are addressed through this bill. “
I thought it was literally fascinating this push to Congress that you just talked about. In fact, it would have arguably had the opposite effect, as some members of Congress see it as a sign that China is using its influence through TikTok to investigate. maintain a foothold in the United States, but I think a lot of other people are wondering if the U. S. government is trying to keep a foothold in the United States. The U. S. government actually has the power to ban an express social media platform.
Yes, they’ve already done it with a Chinese platform called Grindr. They necessarily forced this company to sell the platform. And that’s how it was handled.
This has happened before, but TikTok is much bigger, and potential TikTok buyers would face antitrust issues if they bought the platform. TikTok would possibly be worth $50 billion, limiting the number of other people who could potentially buy it as well if it were. a possibility.
Well, the concept of restricting TikTok is no longer new. I know former President Trump once talked about banning it. I think it has replaced his position. He now opposes this decision. There’s even a plan to force TikTok to buy user knowledge in the United States. What happened to that effort?
Well, it still exists. And that’s because Oracle, the cloud facilities company that was going to have a lot of TikTok knowledge on its servers, was founded here in Austin recently. They were in Silicon Valley, and this plan is underway.
TikTok sells it as a solution to this problem, as the Texas mission is said to have brought American knowledge to our shores. This would lead to some conflicts with China.
When members of Congress were asked about this, they said that Project Texas simply hasn’t progressed fast enough, nor do they have enough understanding of how TikTok’s source code would interact with this knowledge. So it’s one thing to send knowledge across the Atlantic and maintain it. on U. S. servers U. S. But while not much is known about how TikTok’s ruleset and source code work, and whether they’re still under Chinese control, proponents of the ban say there’s still a huge risk to national security.
If you take a look at their website, TikTok is still selling the Texas Project. A billion dollars have been invested in it. But the members of Congress who approved this plan don’t seem to think it’s fast enough.
» RELATED: Project Texas: As a component of TikTok’s billion-dollar plan in the U. S.
Okay, so the bill is for the Senate, I guess?
It’s headed to the Senate, where the long-term is highly doubtful, either because individual senators can suspend a bill and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has said he plans to do so.
In addition, many senators on both sides of the aisle have been hesitant and hesitant in their attitude toward the bill. And part of the explanation is that, as you mentioned, former President Trump, who has a lot of influence over Republicans. , has changed its stance on the matter. Now he says TikTok necessarily provides cover against Facebook, which is a social media platform he doesn’t like right now. Therefore, he would like Republicans to oppose this bill to save him. Facebook will be strengthened, while President Biden has said he will sign the bill into law.
Of course, after the Senate, even if passed, the law would be the subject of many legal challenges. As we have discussed, there are similar considerations to the First Amendment. Therefore, some think that this is not a closed deal, even if it were approved by either chamber and signed by the president.
If this invoice was approved and TikTok was up for sale, who would be interested in this purchase?
So, I guess the question is: what would whoever bought TikTok gain, either directly in terms of making cash or also making sure that the required safeguards were maintained through this invoice?
As I mentioned, antitrust issues are very vital because even if a big tech company came along and said, “Hey, I’d like to buy TikTok,” it would face scrutiny from the SEC and other government entities that could just do that. difficult to acquire.
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