Two Democratic lawmakers yesterday (January 13) urged Congress and U.S. President Joe Biden to postpone the January 19 deadline to give Chinese company ByteDance time to sell its TikTok assets in the United States or face a ban.
The ban has been extended for another 270 days.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled over the weekend that TikTok and ByteDance were challenging the law. A lawyer for the company, Noel Francisco, said it would be impossible to complete the sale before next week's deadline.
Senator Edward Markey may invoke legislation to delay the TikTok ban for another 270 days.
Francesco assessed that, if banned, the short -video app used by 170 million Americans would quickly cease to exist and "essentially the platform would shut down."
President Biden could extend the deadline by another 90 days if he certifies that ByteDance is making significant progress toward divesting, but it is unlikely that ByteDance will meet that standard.
Senator Edward Markey announced he plans to introduce legislation to delay the deadline by which ByteDance must sell TikTok or face a further 270-day ban.
"A ban would destroy a unique information and cultural ecosystem, silencing millions in the process. A TikTok ban would have devastating consequences for millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connection and economic livelihoods. We cannot allow that to happen," said Senator Edward Markey.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the court to halt the implementation of the law, arguing that he should have time after his inauguration on January 20 to pursue a "political solution" to the issue.
Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, urged Biden and Trump on Monday to "pause this ban so that 170 million Americans don't lose their freedom of speech. The livelihoods of millions of Americans will end if this ban is implemented."
If the court doesn't block the law on January 19th, new TikTok downloads on Apple or Google will be blocked, but existing users can continue accessing the app for a while longer. The services will degrade and eventually cease to function because the companies won't be allowed to provide support.
Negotiations are underway to sell TikTok's US operations to billionaire Elon Musk.
According to Bloomberg, Chinese officials are in preliminary negotiations about a potential sale of TikTok's US operations to billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app inevitably face an impending ban. The source also stated that Beijing officials want TikTok to remain under the control of its parent company, Bytedance.
Bloomberg reports that China is in preliminary talks to sell the TikTok social media app in the US to Tesla owner and the world's richest man, Elon Musk.
The report indicates that TikTok's US operations could be sold through a competitive bidding process or a government deal, suggesting the app's future is no longer entirely in ByteDance's control.
The Chinese government has a "stake" in ByteDance, which some members of Congress argue gives the government power over TikTok.
According to one scenario, Musk's social media platform X would take control of TikTok in the United States and jointly run the business. However, Bloomberg reports that officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.
It remains unclear how much ByteDance is aware of the discussions, or of Musk's or TikTok's involvement, and there is no information on whether ByteDance, TikTok, or Musk are involved in any negotiations regarding a potential deal.
TikTok has previously stated that the government's stake "is unrelated to ByteDance's global operations outside of China, including TikTok."
Last week, the US Supreme Court was likely to uphold a law that would force the sale or ban of TikTok in the United States on January 19, citing national security concerns related to China.
(Source: Reuters, Bloomberg)
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