Speaker 1: President Biden has signed into law a measure that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States. If it’s Chinese owner by dance doesn’t find a suitable buyer within the next year. So what does all that mean? We break it down. Now that the bill has been signed, tiktoks owner by dance has nine months to sell the company to a buyer that US officials deem fit that period could be extended to up to a year. Right now, it’s business [00:00:30] as usual. At TikTok, people can post and view just like they always have. It’s what happens in a year that will actually matter. China has previously said that it opposes a sale. Security officials say that it’s likely that China doesn’t want TikTok source code or its algorithms falling into the hands of the US or US companies. It’s possible that big tech companies that currently don’t do business in social [00:01:00] media might be interested in buying TikTok. Companies like Microsoft and Oracle have been floated in the past. It’s also possible that private equity investors might be interested in banding together to buy the social media platform if TikTok eventually goes away. Companies like Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook stand to benefit, there’s one less big competitor for them to deal with. Speaker 1: Many TikTok users in the US [00:01:30] have already voiced concern and opposition to a potential ban. A lot of people who use TikTok are making a lot of money using the platform. Eventually, they’ll have to pivot to something else if TikTok goes away. But right now, it is the platform of choice for many, many people on social media. Critics of the TikTok Ban say that it doesn’t do enough to protect US consumers and US National Security. They say that it would be better to [00:02:00] pass comprehensive data privacy legislation that would limit what all social media platforms collect in terms of data on the average American consumer. Will TikTok be banned or sold? Leave us your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for watching.
