President Joe Biden has just signed the so-called TikTok ban into law, meaning that the popular social media app’s parent company must now sell the app or face a ban across the US,
The controversial ban of the app was passed by Congress this week, sending the measure to Mr Biden’s desk, who signed the legislation into law on Wednesday.
Despite fears that the Chinese-owned app will suddenly vanish from users’ phones, that is far from the reality of what will likely happen.
When does the ban go into effect?
At the earliest, it would probably take a year before TikTok would be banned.
Under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has nine months to sell the social media app, tacking on an additional three more if a sale is under way.
But if this doesn’t happen, TikTok will be banned from US app stores.
In reality, the app would be no longer accessible in the app stores in the US, meaning it would become more difficult to download the app or receive updates.
TikTok users could probably circumvent the app’s removal from US app stores and access the app through other means, like by using a virtual private network (VPN) or using a foreign SIM card.
“The TikTok bill relies heavily on the control that Apple and Google maintain over their smartphone platforms because the bill’s primary mechanism is to direct Apple and Google to stop allowing the TikTok app on their respective app stores,” Dean Ball, a research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, told The Associated Press.
I think you're misunderstanding me. Conflict is not war, two companies selling a similar product are in conflict. I don't think Google is sending a hit squad to Microsoft because of their competition.
China clearly wants to compete with USA on multiple levels, they've been doing this since the country was reformed under communism. It's not like they even pretended anything otherwise. From Mao to Deng to Xi China has always said it will develop in it's own way and will confront any one who tries to disturb the peace of the country. Sure enough, from the moment China was reformed, USA has constantly disturbed the peace of the country. Thus, China has always known they were in conflict with the US. It's only now they're strong enough to make it clear they want to be left alone and will use their military if it comes to it.
So yes, even though it's defensive (and I'm not saying countries shouldn't be defensive) China has wanted this conflict. They have every right to this conflict as it's literally the sovereignty of their nation, but it's still wanting conflict. One that they have a clear path to victory.
The corpo wars aren't coming?
I guess I sorta see where you're coming from, but I would say it's more that they've been backed into a corner, no?
I wouldn't say China is backed in to a corner. Like I said they've been planning this for a while. If anything, this shows China's plan is working. Ironically, China's plan is pretty much freedom for all sovereign nations. But as we see with what's going on, the world is choosing the freedom China is offering.