The US Senate has approved a controversial landmark bill that could see TikTok banned in America.

It gives TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, six months to sell its stake or the app will be blocked in the United States.

The bill will now be handed over to US President, Joe Biden, who has vowed to sign it into law as soon as it reaches his desk.

If that happens, ByteDance will have to seek approval from Chinese officials to complete a forced sale, which Beijing has vowed to oppose.

The measure was passed as part of a package of four bills which also included military aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other US partners in the Indo- Pacific.

It got widespread support from lawmakers with 79 Senators voting for it and 18 voting against it.

  • porcupine
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    7 months ago

    You don’t see legislative pushes for that yet. I know this might be difficult for some people on this website to accept, but the video game sector probably isn’t anyone’s first priority in terms of geopolitical hegemony. PC gaming is popular and lucrative, but the user base isn’t exactly on the same scale as phones, PCs generally, or social media. TikTok is a threat to Meta and Google monopolies in a way that League of Legends isn’t to any of the big five. That’s not to say that Microsoft might not eventually push for it, but Microsoft has never had the kind of monopoly over the video game space that they have over desktop OS. Huawei is a similar threat to Apple and Google’s mobile monopoly, which is why they’re targeted.

    The idea that the poor powerless US is being led around on a leash by a secret cabal of “zionists” is superficial and backwards. Zionism functionally only exists as an extension of the US imperial project. If the Zionist occupation stopped serving US strategic interests, it would collapse overnight. It isn’t capable of independently sustaining itself. It’s obvious that anyone committed to US imperialism would be similarly committed to protecting its investment in the occupation of Palestine as a forward operating base for US military objectives. The US government is not being “infiltrated” or “tricked” by a “foreign power”, as universally flattering as that explanation is to American vanity. It’s a popular cope because it gives US citizens a superficial explanation for why they have no influence over public policy, while allowing them to maintain the delusion that their country is actually good if not for the dangerous foreigners secretly corrupting the righteous American spirit.