WASHINGTON — TikTok is tailoring up for a legal battle versus a U.S. law that would force the social media platform to break ties with its China-based momsanddad business, a relocation nearly definitely backed by Chinese authorities as the bitter U.S.-China competition threatens the future of a hugely popular method for young individuals in America to link online.
Beijing hasactually signified TikTok must battle what it hasactually called a “robbers” act by U.S. legislators “to take from others all the great things that they have.” Should a legal obstacle stopworking, observers state Chinese authorities are notlikely to permit a sale, a relocation that might be seen as givingup to Washington.
Beijing might not desire the U.S. action versus the popular short-form video platform to set a “bad precedent,” stated Alex Capri, senior speaker at the National University of Singapore and researchstudy fellow at Hinrich Foundation. “If Beijing capitulates to the U.S., where does it end?”
In its veryfirst main action to the brand-new law, momsanddad business ByteDance provided a declaration Thursday on Toutiao — a Chinese news app it owns — mentioning it “doesn’t have any strategy to sell TikTok.” The Beijing-based company was reacting to media reports that stated it was checkingout situations for selling TikTok’s U.S. company.
The legislation that U.S. President Joe Biden signed this week might enable Washington to expand its scope to target other China-related apps, such as the popular e-commerce platform Temu, and embolden U.S. allies to follow match, stated Hu Xijin, a previous editor-in-chief for the party-run paper Global Times.
With 170 million American users, TikTok needto “have more guts to battle to the extremely end and refuse to giveup,” Hu, now a political analyst, stated Wednesday on Chinese social media.
TikTok promised to difficulty the brand-new U.S. law, which needs ByteDance to divest its stakes within a year to prevent a restriction. The business hasactually identified the law as an violation on the complimentary speech rights of its users, most of whom usage the app for homeentertainment.
“We think the truths and the law are plainly on our side, and we will eventually dominate,” the business composed on the social platform X.
The battle over TikTok hasactually increased stress inbetween the U.S. and China, with both promising to safeguard their financial and nationwide security interests. U.S. legislators are