At the same time, the law is not only directed against TikTok, it is called “Peace through Strength in the 21st Century Act”. Thanks to it, the US president will get the opportunity to adopt extensive sanctions against Iran and Russian officials, or allow the government to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.
“It’s unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using major foreign aid legislation as a cover to push through a bill that would trample on the free speech of 170 million Americans,” TikTok chief Shou Zi Chew fumed before Biden signed the bill.
A blanket ban on TikTok in the US is one step closer
Internet and PC
According to him, the primary goal of the congressmen who approved the law may not be the desire to block TikTok, even though it has been a very hot topic in the US for the past few months. The new law allows the US government to ban other foreign-owned digital services as well.
With Biden’s signature, the nine-month period during which ByteDance must sell the TikTok network began to run. If the representatives of this Chinese giant did not do so, the application databases operated by Apple or Google would not be able to provide these applications in the US.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere,” Shou Zi Chew said, adding that his company “will continue to fight for users’ rights in the courts.” He emphasized that the US Constitution is on the side of TikTok.
US lawmakers have expressed concern that TikTok could provide US users’ data to the Chinese government. The fate of the platform, which is used by approximately 170 million Americans, has subsequently become a major issue in Washington. Lawmakers have faced calls in recent weeks from users expressing opposition to the proposed measure.
In Montana, a court intervened
Pressure to ban TikTok began to grow in the US last year due to concerns about user data. Over the summer, for example, lawmakers in Montana voted to ban the Chinese social network TikTok statewide — not just for officials, but for all users.
Montana was thus supposed to become the first US state to proceed with such strict repression due to concerns about the security of user data. But the lawmakers’ plans ran into trouble in court.
In December, the federal district court in Missoula preliminarily ruled that “the ban could violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution on freedom of speech.”
The process is still ongoing, but based on the court’s decision, the ban on the use of the app in Montana cannot be enforced yet, even though the legislators had intended to do so since the beginning of this year.
The law supports our shared priority of protecting Montanans from the surveillance of the Chinese Communist Party
The approved law, which is not yet valid due to the court’s decision, was very strict. The legislation explicitly prohibits downloading the TikTok app in Montana and will fine any app stores or TikTok itself if they offer it in the state.
The fine was set at $10,000 (CZK 225,000) per day for each case in which the entity offered users access to this application, Reuters reported.
However, it should be noted that the fine does not apply to TikTok users themselves. If they somehow manage to get the app, no one will fine them. So the restrictions are aimed exclusively at app stores.
Last year, Governor Greg Gianforte said that this law supports “our shared priority – protecting the people of Montana from the surveillance of the Chinese Communist Party.”
In addition, with his signature, he also banned the use of any social networks that collect or provide personal information to “foreign enemies” on government facilities.
Stop sign also in the Czech Republic
The use of the TikTok application on government devices has already been decided to be banned by all countries of the Five Eyes alliance, which brings together the intelligence agencies of the USA, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A similar step was announced by Belgium, France and the European Commission.
“I proceeded to issue the warning based on a comprehensive analysis of information about the TikTok application, which we obtained both from public sources and from our allies,” said NÚKIB director Lukáš Kintr.
“The amount of data collected and its handling, combined with the legal environment in China and the growing number of users in the Czech Republic, give us no choice but to label TikTok as a security threat,” he added.
The warning also applies to the general public. “The warning does not differentiate between public and private sector users. What is crucial for me is whether a threat to a specific system could have a negative impact on the functioning of the Czech Republic and the safety of each of us,” added Kintr.
How TikTok works
TikTok is most popular especially among teenagers, who, according to some statistics, already use it more often than Facebook. Among the users of this Chinese social network, we can also find older generations.
The principle of this online service is very simple, it is based on very short videos that are played one after the other. It’s the same as if you were viewing posts on Facebook and the screen scrolled itself to more and more posts.
But instead of text, they play prime videos on TikTok, short recordings with a length of three to 60 seconds. And just such a short duration seems to be a recipe for success, because in the US the Chinese social network has even surpassed Snapchat and Instagram.
At first it was possible to record videos of only 15 seconds, later it was possible to publish up to three-minute clips. Video content can now be up to ten minutes long.
Although short videos are still popular, many users are able to spend several hours a day on TikTok.
European Commission steps down on TikTok to protect children online
Internet and PC
