Biden signs TikTok 'ban' bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest - Zoomers on suicide watch

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/24/24139036/biden-signs-tiktok-ban-bill-divest-foreign-aid-package

President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app within a year.

The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three months if he sees progress.

While just recently the legislation seemed like it would stall out in the Senate after being passed as a standalone bill in the House, political maneuvering helped usher it through to Biden’s desk. The House packaged the TikTok bill — which upped the timeline for divestment from the six months allowed in the earlier version — with foreign aid to US allies, which effectively forced the Senate to consider the measures together. The longer divestment period also seemed to get some lawmakers who were on the fence on board.

TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said in a statement that the company plans to challenge the law in the courts, which could ultimately extend the timeline should the courts delay enforcement pending a resolution. There also remains the question of how China will respond and whether it would let ByteDance sell TikTok and, most importantly, its coveted algorithm that keeps users coming back to the app.

“As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired,” Haurek said.

“Make no mistake, this is a ban,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in a video posted on TikTok Wednesday, objecting to some lawmakers’ assertions that they just want to see the platform disconnected from Chinese ownership. “A ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice.”

Update, April 24th: The article has been updated with an official statement from a TikTok spokesperson and its CEO.

 

[Rudolf's Friend]

As if Biden isn't already unpopular enough with Zoomers. Wonder how those 2 kids who get paid by ActBlue to shill for Biden and the DNC are going to cope over this.

 

[Sneeder Griffin]

Bytedance should just call Biden's bluff. As stupid as it sounds, Biden supporting a TikTok ban could potentially lead to a large chunk of Gen Z to stay home on Election Day, as it is one of the few issues that will directly affect them. A TikTok ban would be like 9/11 for boring white Zoomer women and Gen X/Boomer cat ladies who make up a large portion of the Democratic voting base.

Even if Biden goes full retard and actually goes through with this, Tiktok will likely sue, resulted in several stays in court that will delay this from going into effect for years until the law gets struck down by the Supreme Court.

 

[Colonel Sugarlemons]

All Elon has to do is add reels to Xitter and it will basically be the same thing. Honestly not sure why he hasn't done this yet.

 

[xX_rAcE_wAr_420_Xx]

This is incredibly gay. Yeah, TikTok is retard brain poison and Chinese spyware, but so is Discord and half of all popular software these days. No pointing to actual principles or standards that should be enshrined in law for the common good, just blaming social media for "being bad" and stealing personal information, as if normies don't happily spill all their details online without prompt. If you want to have data privacy laws, then write those laws instead of this whack-a-mole piece of shit that is primarily, as stated endlessly before, just about giving the executive branch more power to stamp out things they don't like.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

All Elon has to do is add reels to Xitter and it will basically be the same thing. Honestly not sure why he hasn't done this yet.

Money, Data storage for videos even short ones is really expensive let alone the bandwith needed to be able to serve it.

I looked into self hosting some videos for my guilds educational resources and it's certainly doable with off the shelf or open source technology but pricy and while nowhere near the same level of users or activity it got cost prohibitive rather quickley.

 

[Slav Power]

Isn't that the bill that has been propped up as the "TikTok ban" so every retard including the people on this site gleefully supported it, but no one ever bothered to read it, and it's been worded in a way where it lets the US government ban any website they so wish to desire with no legal process?

Yeah I'll definitely cheer for that because they banned TikTok and that's all that matters. Hopefully they pass a federal porn site real ID verification next, gotta protect the kids! Surely they wouldn't do something evil with legislation called "Save The Kids From Porn Act", right?

 

[WelperHelper99]

Isn't the wording to go after foreign-owned social media companies? Since Xitter is US-owned, they wouldn't have much to stand on.

The question I have is what about shell companies? What's stopping the Chinese from forming a US-based company that is just a sockpuppet for their tentacles to look legal?

I don't believe so. Pretty sure it's all social media companies. So in theory that shell company plan wouldn't work, but in reality it'll just go after twitter or 4chan.

 

[Slav Power]

in reality it'll just go after twitter or 4chan.

You're a CCP shill that wants China to take over the US, stop spreading misinformation. This bill is only to ban Chinese social media and for nothing else, and if you suggest otherwise you want to indoctrinate US kids with communist propaganda.

 

[Alter Ego]

I can't find the original language of this bill, name of the bill, or any primary source material about it on any search engine. Just journalism.

Indeed a pain in the ass to find, but the bill (now law) in question here is H.R. 8038 of the 118th Congress 2D Session, "21st Century Peace through Strength Act". Since this is an omnibus bill (because we can't have nice things like single-issue bills), the relevent section here is Division D, "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act":

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118hr8038ih/pdf/BILLS-118hr8038ih.pdf

So this calls out ByteDance and TikTok by name, but then gives allowance to extend reach to further companies that are "controlled by a foreign adversary". To understand what "foreign adversaries" are, though, the text directs to section 4872(d)(2) of title 10, United States 20 Code:

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title10/pdf/USCODE-2022-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap385-subchapIII-sec4872.pdf

So it appears to me that the scope of this is explicitly limited to the obvious entities North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Thus the "bad sites" like Twitter, 4chan, and Kiwi Farms are safe from this, for those who are so worried.

 

[WelperHelper99]

You're a CCP shill that wants China to take over the US, stop spreading misinformation. This bill is only to ban Chinese social media and for nothing else, and if you suggest otherwise you want to indoctrinate US kids with communist propaganda.

Lol. Well it will ban (some of, they missed Discord) Chinese social media, I'll give them that. But we sold the farm when all we needed to do was sell the car. Thanks Joe Biden. What a fucking deal.

 

[Slav Power]

But we sold the farm when all we needed to do was sell the car.

This happens every time you get the government to solve a problem in any country. Can't pass up a good opportunity to give yourself more power.

 

[Marvin]

I despise Tik-Tok, but I don't see how this is at all constitutional

It's trivially constitional. Regulating foreign companies doing business in the US is an explicit power of the federal government.

 

[Alter Ego]

Indeed a pain in the ass to find, but the bill (now law) in question here is H.R. 8038 of the 118th Congress 2D Session, "21st Century Peace 5 through Strength Act". Since this is an omnibus bill (because we can't have nice things like single-issue bills), the relevent section here is Division D, "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act":

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118hr8038ih/pdf/BILLS-118hr8038ih.pdf

View attachment 5934619View attachment 5934623

So this calls out ByteDance and TikTok by name, but then gives allowance to extend reach to further companies that are "controlled by a foreign adversary". To understand what "foreign adversaries" are, though, the text directs to section 4872(d)(2) of title 10, United States 20 Code:

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title10/pdf/USCODE-2022-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartI-chap385-subchapIII-sec4872.pdf

View attachment 5934636

So it appears to me that the scope of this is explicitly limited to the obvious entities North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Thus the "bad sites" like Twitter, 4chan, and Kiwi Farms are safe from this, for those who are so worried.

Seems to me that Kiwi Farms in particular is further not subject to this law because it's far too small to count as a "covered company".

 

[ZazietheBeast]

Oh good. If they think the Zoomies are already redpilled about the JQ right now, once this finally passes and it comes to effect, the hatred for the Jew will only amplify.

This will be their version of the Patriot Act. Sadly, the worst enemy of Schlomo is actually Schlomo himself.

 

[TyrasGuard]

This is what I fear. If it WAS just TikTok in a vacuum, I couldn't give the slightest fuck. But it's so fucking broad, gives the president the power to go after ANY site, instead of just going "TikTok is banned losers, cry more.". I'm torn. I want TikTok dead but I also know this is worse than the patriot act.

I mean, in a perfect world you'd just tell your citizens that TikTok is faggotry incarnate and tell them to not use it. Unfortunately, you need people to have above room temperature IQ to do that.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

I foresee no possible way this can go wrong.

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

Based, social media needs to be destroyed for the utter clusterfuck it is.

 

[Danann]

Wasn't this tried to be passed a few years ago but never went through? I remember that people were warning that said bill would fine you a shit ton of money visiting those sites and also imprison you too....not to mention I remember seeing Venezuela originally as a listed enemy, but they're not a threat to America so they were dropped.

 

[Radiaux]

Oh man, I told people this was going to actually get passed and they blew me off. America does not fuck around when it comes to China.

So real talk, do you think that Bytedance is going to do it?

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

Wasn't this tried to be passed a few years ago but never went through? I remember that people were warning that said bill would fine you a shit ton of money visiting those sites and also imprison you too....not to mention I remember seeing Venezuela originally as a listed enemy, but they're not a threat to America so they were dropped.

It was Trump who was doing it so it was bad. Now it’s ok.