A House vote on Wednesday, March 13, would push an ultimatum in front of Chinese media company ByteDance — divest and sell off TikTok or face a ban in the US. Axios Pro Tech Policy Reporter Maria Curi explains the hurdles an outright TikTok ban could face as lawmakers prioritize the security of Americans' private data.
"Even though this bill has moved very quickly through the House, it was just introduced... at the committee level last week, now it's being expected to pass tomorrow. It still faces a long road ahead in the Senate, and then even if President Biden does sign it into law — which he has indicated he would — it will immediately be challenged by TikTok and ByteDance in all likelihood, and then it would get caught up in the courts...," Curi tells Yahoo Finance.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
JULIE HYMAN: The House is voting on a bill that gives Chinese company ByteDance an ultimatum. Sell TikTok or face a ban in the United States. But how likely is it that ByteDance will sell? Who would take control if it did?
Here to help us answer these questions is Axios Pro Tech Policy Reporter Maria Curi. And, Maria, there's been some reporting now also that ByteDance says it's going to fight this if the bill does indeed get passed. But, you know, I think there are a lot of questions about how this would all play out even if the bill does get passed. So what are you hearing?
MARIA CURI: Absolutely. So they have already been fighting this, to be clear. They have creators-- here on Capitol Hill where I am now just outside the House of Representatives lobbying against this and speaking out against this. And they've been meeting with lawmakers as well. They will continue to do so tomorrow.
And even though this bill has moved very quickly through the House, it was just introduced and passed out of the committee level last week. Now, it's being expected to pass tomorrow. So it still faces a long road ahead in the Senate.
And then even if President Biden does sign it into law, which he has indicated he would, it will immediately be challenged by TikTok and ByteDance in all likelihood. And then it would get caught up in the courts likely delaying that 165 divestment period that ByteDance has to sell TikTok. And then from there, we can get into the different companies that have been floated as potential buyers.
There are some that would make sense. Beginning with Microsoft. If we remember under the Trump administration when former President Donald Trump tried to force divestiture through an executive order, he actually gave ByteDance 45 days. So much less than 165 days. But as we know, that did end up falling through.