Chinese tech giant ByteDance reportedly wants TikTok to shutdown in the United States if its legal fight against the recently passed ban-or-sell legislation fails.
ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, prefers to let the app be shut down in the United States rather than sell it if the Chinese company is unable to win against the sell-or-ban legislation in court, four sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Nebraska NCAA college pole vaulter Jessica Gardner looks at her phone Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
TikTok influencers Florin Vitan (L) and Alessia Lanza perform a video for the social network TikTok in the “Defhouse”, a TikTok influencers incubator. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
Sources say ByteDance doesn’t want to sell TikTok because going through with a sale would mean a foreign entity getting their hands on the app’s algorithms, which are core to the Chinese company’s overall operations.
Moreover, TikTok makes up a small share of ByteDance’s total revenues and daily active users, giving the company more reason to let the app just shut down in the United States if the Chinese tech giant can’t find a way around the recently passed U.S. legislation, sources added.
ByteDance believes a shutdown of TikTok in the U.S. would have a small impact on its business while letting the company keep its core algorithm for itself.
Toutiao, a media platform owned by ByteDance, said in a statement on Thursday that the Chinese tech giant has no plan to sell TikTok.
On Wednesday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the social media platform plans to file a lawsuit against the ban-or-sell legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law.
The Chinese company, controlled by a hostile foreign country, ironically told Americans that it will “fight” for their “rights,” adding, “the Constitution is on our side.”
The bipartisan bill — signed into law Wednesday — forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months or else be banned in the United States comes after years of concern by U.S. lawmakers and civilians regarding the popular app’s parent company being beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok is widely considered a national security threat, given that copious amounts of U.S. user data could end up — and likely is — in the hands of Chinese communists. Notably, lawmakers have already banned the app from government-issued devices.
Meanwhile, TikTok has also shown itself to be a danger to kid and teens, and is facing multiple lawsuits brought by several families who say the Chinese social media platform is directly responsible for the deaths of their children.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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