Staff Reports
Congress takes a swing at TikTok, ready to sell to the highest bidder. The Senate ain’t playin’ games when it comes to TikTok. They’re all like, “Hey, ByteDance, sell your TikTok or else face the boot!” And guess what? The Senate passed that message on to President Joe Biden, and he’s all like, “Yep, I’ll sign it!”
Senate forces sale of TikTok despite vow of legal challenges https://t.co/fKwDpxtD70 https://t.co/fKwDpxtD70
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 24, 2024
The House started this whole thing back in March, passing a bill saying ByteDance needed to sell TikTok or face getting the boot. But, hold up, there were some changes that the Senate made, like giving ByteDance more time to sell – nine months instead of six! Plus, they let the president add another 90 days to that. So, ByteDance basically gets a year to find someone to buy TikTok.
Sen. Maria Cantwell from Washington was all like, “You know what, I’m down with this bill now.” She wasn’t cool with it before, but she’s on board with it now that there’s more time for ByteDance to sell.
TikTok’s been tryna fight this thing, though. They’re all like, “This is censorship! You can’t take away our First Amendment rights!” TikTok’s CEO even went and talked to lawmakers about it, and they even got the app’s users – mostly kids and young adults – to hit up their representatives about it.
But, like, it doesn’t seem like TikTok’s cries are making much of a difference. The Senate peeps got up and talked about why they think ByteDance needs to sell TikTok. They’re all worried about China gettin’ their hands on user data through ByteDance.
So, TikTok tried throwin’ some cash around, spending over $7 million to fight this bill, including a fat $4.5 million ad spree. They even rallied up some big names, like Donald Trump and his people. But, in the end, it looks like all that money and schmoozing didn’t do much to change the Senate’s mind.
Sen. John Fetterman from Pennsylvania straight up told TikTok’s CEO that his daughter was scared she was gonna get beat up at school because of this bill. He was all like, “Chill, dude, we can talk, but don’t be escalatin’ things.”
