According to Maria Cantwell, chairman of the US Senate Commerce Committee, the Senate is considering extending TikTok’s divestiture period to one year. This adjustment is based on a bill previously passed by the House of Representatives, requiring TikTok to complete the divestiture from its parent company, ByteDance, within 165 days. Foreign media reported that the proposal to extend the divestiture period has been discussed in Congress, which may postpone TikTok’s ban until November 2025, after the US presidential election.
Returning after the Easter recess, the Senate plans to amend the TikTok stripping bill passed by the House of Representatives to enhance its legal effect and make it more difficult to overturn. Any amendment to the bill must be approved by the House of Representatives before it can be submitted to President Biden for signature. This means that the review process of TikTok divestiture bill will be greatly extended, and there will be no conclusion in the short term.
While Congress pushed the divestiture bill, TikTok did not stand idly by, but actively launched lobbying and extensive marketing activities. Since the House of Representatives passed the divestiture bill three weeks ago, TikTok has launched more than $3.1 million in marketing activities in key states such as Nevada, Montana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and its advertisements have been broadcast on TV, billboards and bus stops.
In this 30-second advertisement, TikTok showed the speeches of many users, who expressed their opposition to the potential ban, claiming that they would not have achieved today without TikTok, and called on the public to speak out against the ban. Michael Hughes, spokesman for TikTok, said: “We believe that the public has the right to know that the government is trying to trample on the freedom of speech of 170 million Americans and destroy 7 million small businesses nationwide.”
Facing the dilemma of “withdrawal” or “divestiture”, TikTok is trying to find a third way out and fight for its own rights and interests. This policy debate is not only related to the fate of TikTok, but also touches the vital interests of users and small business owners.
Post time: Apr-15-2024