The alarmist headlines grow louder these days — TikTok Ban: It’s Here! Americans Sound Off on TikTok Ban in Viral Rants! Say Farewell to TikTok! Content creators and influencers who earn their living from TikTok are having a toxic freakout and spreading misinformation about what ByteDance and the Chinese government can and can’t actually do. Neither alarmed nor freaked out, we opted to do something wacky in this conversation and ask CMI’s chief strategy advisor, Robert Rose, to look at the challenges through the lens of practicality. Watch this video or read on for his take:
- What does the TikTok bill say? Because I love you all, I read US House Resolution 7521 (the TikTok bill), so you don’t have to. Slightly fewer than 2,00 words, it’s a short bill. But it’s still written in politician legalese. It’s not the most entertaining of reads. Let’s review the summary. To make it more entertaining, I’ll invoke my inner Jeff Spicoli (from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High) to explain: “So, dude, check it out. Right now, TikTok’s controlled by China — the uncoolest of the five uncool countries. And we don’t trust them. So, TikTok’s either got to sell themselves to somebody the president of the US says is cool, or it’s gonna be bummer city, and they’ll get the full slam and be nada in the United States. Oh, and even if they find somebody gnarly to sell to, they gotta give every user their cool data. If they don’t, then the attorney general dude can hit ’em with this mondo $500 person per user lawsuit action.” OK, so now you get it. TikTok must divest itself of its Chinese control, or the U.S. will ban it. And even if it does sell, they now must give everybody access to their data. Now, let’s review the likeliest outcomes from that:
