ILLUSTRATION BY FERNANDO CAPETO FOR FORBES; PHOTO BY ROBERTO WESTBROOK/TETRA IMAGES RF/GETTY IMAGES
OOn Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed laws that may force China-based social media giant ByteDance to sell its crown jewel, TikTok. Otherwise, the app will likely be banned within the United States – an unprecedented move that may be the primary time that country has banned a foreign-owned social media app.
Biden and the White House have stressed that a ban on TikTok isn’t the intent of the law and that as an alternative they simply want the app to proceed operating here under latest American ownership. (Case in point: The Biden campaign recently joined TikTok and plans to proceed using it to succeed in voters.)
However, a consensus is starting to emerge that it should be nearly not possible to separate TikTok from ByteDance. Forbes Coverage of the platform, utilized by 170 million Americans, has also repeatedly shown how closely linked the 2 corporations are, with much of TikTok now running on ByteDance tools – its own versions of Microsoft Office, G Suite, Salesforce and the like – which were developed years ago by engineers in China. This gives each corporations’ employees within the US and China broad access to sensitive details about American TikTok users, TikTok creators, TikTok advertisers and celebrities, politicians and other public figures on the app. Employees also describe major overlaps between the businesses.
“I will say that ByteDance is not a mistake [and] TikTok is one and the same,” said former TikTok worker Joel Carter, who says he was wrongfully terminated in August Forbes. “It is clear from day one – through office documents, products, systems, processes, office signage and even your paycheck – that individuals are ByteDance employees.”
And the argument that the brand new law is definitely not a couple of divestment has at all times been made by TikTok.
“Make no mistake, this is a ban — a ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said Wednesday in a viral video posted to the platform after Biden passed the bill had. “Politicians may say otherwise, but don’t be confused. Many supporters of the bill admit that a TikTok ban is their ultimate goal.”
“Rest assured, we are not going anywhere,” he added. “We are confident and will continue to fight for your rights in court. The facts and the Constitution are on our side.”
“What happens if there is no sales partner? I think that could get the whole thing going again.”
Biden’s passage of the anti-TikTok bill – which was a part of a broader package providing foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan – is the tip of 1 chapter but the start of the following: a possible protracted legal battle over the long run of the hugely popular app.
“This is the beginning, not the end, of this long process,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s chief policy officer for the Americas, wrote in an internal memo to employees on Saturday Forbes. (The slogan next to his name was “Keep Calm and Aim for the Highest.”) He called the bill “unconstitutional” and “unprecedented.”
“Once the bill is signed, we will turn to the courts for a legal challenge,” the manager told employees. “We will continue to fight because this legislation is a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans on TikTok and would have devastating consequences for the 7 million small businesses that use TikTok to reach new customers, sell their products , and create new jobs. … Let’s do our best together to stay calm and focus on business.”
TikTok’s top executives repeated those remarks during a global all-hands meeting On Wednesday. Andy Bonillo, TikTok’s U.S. data security lead, also sent out a message saying, “I know today’s news on the TikTok ban law is disappointing,” but “USDS’s work remains central to the company’s trust-building strategy.” “Our work is unwavering and mission-critical,” says internal communications from Forbes. And in a separate statement from U.S. Trust and Security Director Suzy Loftus, she told employees: “This next chapter will bring forth our resilience… Please know how proud I am of our team and our work.” And to be on the correct side of history.”
Ken Glueck, executive vp of Oracle, said Forbes The potentially lengthy debate over whether or not TikTok could be divested could find yourself putting the US back in first place. (Oracle worked with TikTok on Project Texas, a $1.5 billion project that guarantees to unwind TikTok’s operations within the U.S. and China to handle privacy, privacy and national security concerns with the app.)
“First and foremost, this is a legal question,” Glueck said by telephone on Wednesday. “Once you have clarity on the legal issue – which may happen in a reasonably short period of time, or it will take a slightly longer process – then you will move on to the next step, which is: Is there a divestment? And then the question arises: What happens if there is no sales partner? When asked whether the future of Oracle’s relationship with TikTok was at stake or how the looming ban might change the nature of Oracle’s collaboration with TikTok, Glueck said, “I do not know” and that Oracle has no position on it. what his partner should do.
“There is no way to take the US part out of TikTok and sell it to someone.”
Former National Security Agency general adviser Glenn Gerstell said that while China and TikTok pose potential threats to national security, the law passed by the White House and Congress is “really bad public policy” and more likely to be within the colonel’s crosshairs The Court of Justice advises that the sale required therein is “economically unrealistic”. (A half-dozen potential buyers have been discussed or rumored to be inquisitive about TikTok, but none have gained significant traction.)
“There is no way to take the U.S. portion out of TikTok and sell it to someone,” Gerstell said Forbes. “China will never allow the algorithms that make TikTok what it is – the sophisticated app that became the world’s most popular app in just two years.[to have] a new, non-Chinese owner… which would then completely destroy the value of the remaining part. There is no world where this makes economic sense, and no one is going to buy a TikTok in the US that doesn’t have this algorithm.”
“The thing that makes it valuable is exactly what is not for sale,” he added.
Do you have got a tip about TikTok or ByteDance? Feel free to contact Alexandra S. Levine via Signal/WhatsApp at (310) 526–1242 and Emily Baker-White at ebakerwhite@forbes.com or emilybakerwhite@protonmail.com.
There are also pressing questions on whether a TikTok ban would achieve what US politicians hope: Forbes The reporting found that years after TikTok and ByteDance were banned in India in 2020, TikTok and ByteDance still had widespread access to sensitive data about lots of the 150 million Indian residents who once used the app.
TikTok is already leveraging its massive user base to thrust back against the ban. 1,000,000 posts with the hashtags #tiktokban, #savetiktok and #keeptiktok circulated on the app on Wednesday, with users slamming lawmakers and threatening to take votes away from Biden. In the inner memo that Beckerman sent to employees on Saturday, he emphasized the importance of “advocating and supporting creators…both on the app and in calls to their elected officials.” Some of the highest creators whose posts he included within the memo also appeared at the highest of the outcomes for users trying to find #tiktokban.
Other YouTubers identified the seeming hypocrisy of the Biden campaign’s decision to remain on TikTok and court YouTubers’ audiences to assist the president’s re-election efforts. “Joe Biden signs a bill to ban the TikTok app, and in the same breath his team asks to partner with TikTok creators to secure votes in the next election?” said creator Lauren Ashley Beck in a video with an incredulous voice View. “You lost.”
