ByteDance Faces U.S. Senate Vote on Divestment of TikTok: Balancing National Security with User Rights and Business Interests

The U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on legislation that would require ByteDance, the owner of popular short video app TikTok, to divest its U.S. assets. Senators Mark Warner and Maria Cantwell expressed hope that the app would remain in business in the U.S., while acknowledging its large user base of 170 million Americans, particularly young people, and emphasizing the importance of ensuring that it is no longer controlled by an adversary.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed bipartisan legislation giving ByteDance nine months to divest TikTok, with a possible three-month extension. President Joe Biden has indicated that he would sign the legislation if approved by the Senate. TikTok has argued that the law amounts to a ban that would violate the free speech rights of its users, as the company maintains that it does not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government.

Senator Cantwell emphasized that Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage or surveillance on Americans, rather than to punish ByteDance or TikTok. She called the timeline for divestment reasonable and highlighted that requiring Chinese divestment from U.S. companies is not a new concept. However, Senator Ed Markey expressed concerns that the legislation would likely result in a TikTok ban rather than a successful divestment that maintains the app for U.S