A proposed U.S. law targeting the social media app TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese base company ByteDance, could force the company to sell its controlling stake or be blocked in the U.S. Host of the podcast Tech Gumbo Host Haggai Davis said the issue is over the user data it collects and that it’s being sold within the communist country.
“There’s a lot of people, here in the United States, who are concerned that our personal data is going straight to China and that is a problem,” said Davis.
Davis said the bill forces the company to be sold to either a U.S.-based or a non-Chinese company to alleviate security concerns that a communist country could be misusing data against Americans.
“Once the bill is passed and signed by the President then they would have 180 days for that sale to go through or then they would ban TikTok in the United States,” said Davis.
Like other social media apps and search engines, Davis said when you sign on to any of them you automatically allow them to track your online activity which then gives advertisers insight of your personality traits.
He said the issue with TikTok is that the ownership is based in a Communist Country.
If you use the popular app, to promote your brand or business, Davis said he doesn’t anticipate it being banned anytime soon.
“Well, I’m certainly not an attorney, and I don’t play one on radio but I think this is going to immediately get challenged in court, over a free speech issue, if nothing else. I don’t think this is going to change in 180 days,” said Davis.
On Wednesday the U.S. House approved the bill, which now heads to the Senate.
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