As widely expected, the US Senate has approved in the Italian night the bill that could lead to the blocking of TikTok in the USA: the measure, passed with 79 votes in favor and 18 againstdid not pass alone but together with that relating to new aid package destined for Ukraine.
The move of include the provision in another provision, which is quite well known in Italian politics, certainly helped the bill get the green light. The text, which quickly arrived in the hands of President Biden, was signed and effectively became law: “I will sign this bill as soon as it arrives on my desk, so we can start sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week”, he reiterated the head of the White House (Who) last April 23rdreferring to the true heart of the provision.
Social network
What if the news is the reason the US wants to ban TikTok?
by Emanuele Capone
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Despite this apparent haste, it must be said that it will still pass quite some time before the law is enforced, as they say in jargon. Before it is actually enforced, that is: the text demands that ByteDance, the company of Chinese origin that controls TikTok, sell the social network to an American company or cease its activities on American soilbut also allows 270 days for this to happen.
Nine months is a long time, and it is already foreseen that it could be extended by another 3 months “if there was clear progress towards an agreement”, and they are a non-random time. The first draft spoke of 6 months: the fact that they have become (at least) 9 means that a first decision on this will be made in January. That is, not from the current president but from the next one. Which could still be Biden or (much more likely) Trump, who recently said he was against it to the measure, despite the fact that he was in favor when he was in the White House: “I would like everyone to know, especially the younger ones, that that criminal Biden is responsible for blocking TikTok. He is doing it to help his Facebook friends become even richer and even more powerful, so that they can continue to fight, even with illegal methods, the Democratic Party – wrote the former president on Truth, his social network (image above) – This is electoral interference and the youngest, but also everyone else, must remember this on November 5th, when they go to vote.”
This fact, along with the probables legal appeals that ByteDance and TikTok America will pursue (as the company has already confirmed), makes it decidedly premature to talk about blocking TikTok in the United States, at least until 2025.
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Elon Musk also defends TikTok
While waiting to understand what will happen, and to defend itself from the accusations of having made a provision ad personam (or rather, ad corporam), the American Senate has begun to put its hands forward: “Congress does not act to punish ByteDanceTikTok or any other single company – explained the chair of the Committee on Commerce, the Democrat Maria Cantwell – Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance and other improper operationsharming vulnerable Americans, our military, and our U.S. government personnel.”
But given that the expression “foreign adversaries”in the world of social networks, can only concern TikTok, the only platform that effectively competes with the American Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the like, it is somewhat clear that the measure actually has a single purpose. And one goal.
Meanwhile, TikTok is finding unexpected defenders, starting with Elon Musk: a few days ago, Twitter’s number one tweeted that “in my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the United States, even if such a ban could benefit platform ). Doing so would be against free speech and expression. That’s not what America stands for.”
Which is it then what he wrote also James Surowiecki on Atlantic in March, explaining that “we must not look like China and we must not forget that we are America,” and what he wrote the economist James Broughel su Forbes last April 19, describing TikTok as “a beacon of democracy in the social network landscape”.
We’ll see if all this is enough to make the American authorities retrace their steps. Not now but in 270 days (at least).
#Biden #signed #law #block #TikTok #United #States
– 2024-04-26 02:16:59
