TikTok bill will widen US-China rifts

Significance

This act would ban TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells the video-sharing app within 180 days of the legislation becoming law. TikTok is a long-running target for Republicans because of national security concerns about its Chinese ownership, but the bill poses a dilemma for Democrats.

Impacts

• The largest US tech companies would likely face regulatory scrutiny over a purchase of TikTok.
• Banning TikTok could allow Meta and Google to consolidate their market shares and exercise greater pricing power over advertising inventory.
• TikTok rallying its users to lobby their elected representatives will be cited as ‘weaponisation’ capacity, justifying the app’s ban.