TikTok expires in 44 days!
The U.S. has told Microsoft — who wants to buy TikTok — and Byte Dance,
TikTok’s parent company, that they must reach a deal by September 15th in order for TikTok to remain in the U.S.
Now, this all started when privacy concerns began to bubble up that China has too much access to American’s information.
We’re talking email addresses, contact lists, location data.
Which millennials and Gen-Z could really care less about.
Our parents told us not to talk to strangers on the internet and we made social media. So.
But Mr. Trump is now ruffling his feathers and threatening to pull an executive order to ban TikTok.
Which, unfortunately, he CAN do. But it is SUPER tricky.
How it would work is that the U.S. would have to tackle this at a network level by blocking any communication between targeted servers. This would force Apple and Google to take TikTok out of the app stores and prevent data being tossed from the Chinese servers to U.S. servers, for TikTok.
BUT America law has no precedent for blocking software. BUT there is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
And I’m not a lawyer so Google that to know more.
I’m also not an economist but I can tell you that TikTok generated 500 MILLION dollars in U.S. revenue last year. PLUS they just kicked off major marketing moves.
Oh, added bonus — Byte Dance has an American C.E.O. We chatted about him in the very first Tuesday Tea HASHTAG MEMORIES.
So what would Byte Dance do with American information if it’s run by an American?
Also, millennials and Gen-Z make up MORE THAN 85% of TikTok users. And we’re just not interesting. Plus, easily entertained.
