Biden campaign to maintain presence on TikTok despite new law forcing sale
The president signed a bipartisan bill requiring Chinese owner ByteDance to divest from video app, which TikTok plans to legally challenge.
Despite President Biden signing legislation that could force the Chinese parent company of TikTok to sell the popular video-sharing app or face a U.S. ban, the Biden-Harris campaign has stated it will continue maintaining a presence on the platform.
The new law, part of a $95 billion foreign aid package, gives ByteDance nine months to divest its ownership stake in TikTok, with a potential three-month extension if a sale is in progress. It also prohibits the company from controlling the algorithm that curates videos for users based on their interests, Fox News reports.
"At the stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge," Michael Beckerman, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas, wrote in a memo to employees. "This is the beginning, not the end of this long process."
TikTok has long maintained that it does not pose a national security threat, despite bipartisan concerns in Congress that Chinese officials could compel ByteDance to share U.S. user data or manipulate content on the platform. China has signaled opposition to forcing a TikTok sale.
"This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court," the company said in a statement Wednesday. "We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail."
The passage of the TikTok legislation follows years of warnings from lawmakers and administration officials about potential Chinese threats, including the risks of ByteDance's ownership. Proponents argued a forced sale was necessary to protect American interests.
While TikTok has prevailed in some previous court battles, the company has not attempted to block federal legislation before. It claimed the "unconstitutional ban" would "devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans."
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