(NewsNation) — After the House passed a bill that would ban TikTok if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it to U.S.-based owners, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is setting up a group of investors to try to acquire the company.
Mnuchin didn’t specify which investors he was talking to regarding the deal.
Millions of Americans use TikTok, which has become one of the most popular social media apps. That includes small business owners and content creators who say they have seen significant revenue increases thanks to the app.
Lawmakers, however, have called the app a security risk because it is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok CEO Shou Chew has testified before Congress multiple times, clarifying that he is not a Chinese citizen but is from Singapore, and has already taken steps to appease lawmakers, including moving data on American users to servers hosted in the U.S.
The bill is a rare bipartisan effort, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing fears about the data TikTok could be collecting on users and if that information could be used by the Chinese government.
While lawmakers have supported efforts to limit TikTok, there has not been a similar bipartisan push for legislation that would limit the data U.S.-based social media companies like Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, collect on adult users. All social media networks collect user data in order to serve up content tailored to individual user experiences.
If TikTok does not divest from ByteDance, the app will effectively be banned in the U.S.
However, it’s unclear whether China will even allow ByteDance to sell the app, due to laws in the country. China has spoken out against the legislation, calling it unfair and a violation of global trade practices.
If China does allow the sale of TikTok, it’s not clear if that would include the algorithm that delivers content to users, which has been critical to the success of the app. It’s not certain what value the app would have without the critical code or what exactly investors would be purchasing if that code were not included.
While the bill has passed the House, it still needs to go to the Senate for a vote. It’s not clear it has the votes to pass there, and former President Donald Trump, who previously supported a ban, has spoken out against it. That could motivate some Republicans to vote no, as it did when he spoke out against an immigration compromise that initially had bipartisan Senate support.
President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into law if it passes. It’s likely the law will face legal challenges if it passes.
For users, the impact of a ban wouldn’t be seen immediately. While app stores would be prohibited from hosting the app, it wouldn’t be removed from phones where it is already installed. In other countries that have banned TikTok, users frequently post how to circumvent bans, including the use of a virtual private network to make it appear if the user is located in another country where TikTok is allowed.
