The US House of Representatives has passed a bill ordering ByteDance to separate itself from TikTok in 180 days, or risk being banned in the US.
👉 Background: TikTok's parent company, ByteDance has been in a dance off with the US government since 2020. The US government is concerned that TikTok could be a 'national security threat' if user data ends up in the hands of the Chinese government.
👉 What happened: Now, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill ordering ByteDance to separate itself from TikTok in 180 days, or risk being banned in the US.
👉 What else: If this bill is passed in the US Senate, it will become an official law and will set a precedent for other countries to ban TikTok. When that happens, it won't be just TikTok that loses out but creators and businesses too.
💡For better or worse, social media platforms have made themselves indispensable in the digital economy.
💡In fact, advertisers spent nearly $1.2 billion USD on TikTok just in the fourth quarter of 2023. And, according to TikTok, there are 7 million small businesses that use the app.
💡It's not just TikTok; Meta, Snap, and Google have all been leveraging their short-form video space to earn ad revenue. So, if TikTok is forced out of the picture, its rivals will be waiting to pick up the generous leftovers.
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