Sign In
Learn bits
World Affairs
Mahesh

25/04/24 07:23 AM IST

US Senate passes Bill that may ban TikTok

In News
  • A Bill that could force social media app TikTok’s sale by its Chinese owner, or ban it outright, has been passed in the United States Senate.
Features of the bill
  • The US Senate has passed the measure citing national security concerns because of TikTok’s Chinese ties.
  • The government is wary of the speculated risk that the Chinese government can force domestic companies like Bytedance to share sensitive personal data of over 170 million American users, or be abused to spread pro-Chinese propaganda.
  • The proposed law would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the US if Bytedance was to sell it within nine months.
  • The arm-twisting of the social media app is also being seen as an attack on free speech by some in the US, including TikTok.
  • The company has said that the Bill would “trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate seven million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy, annually.”
  • In 2020, the United Kingdom also banned the use of Huawei gear in the region’s telecom network owing to alleged national security risks.
  • India has followed a similar path, and aside from banning TikTok and similar platforms, disallowed Indian telephone companies from partnering with Huawei to set up their 5G networks.
About Tik tok
  • TikTok is a two-sided platform with users and advertisers as the two sides.
  • It derives its revenues from advertisements and other in-app purchases by the user, although the use of the app itself requires no payment.
  • Although the user pays nothing for downloading and using the app, in such cases they themselves become the product by virtue of surrendering their data and their eyeballs for advertisements.
  • The key would therefore be to regulate this transaction (between advertisers and users) to ensure that TikTok has the right incentives to build safeguards and innovate.
Source- Indian Express

More Related Current Affairs View All

05 Mar

First-ever comprehensive survey of India’s river dolphins

'Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the results of the first-ever comprehensive population estimation of riverine dolphins – Gangetic and Indus dolphins – done in In

Read More

05 Mar

Arresting women at night

'The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court in Deepa versus S. Vijayalakshmi and Others ruled that the legal provision in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, which

Read More

05 Mar

Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

'The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) looking to wrap up public consultations on the draft Rules for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 by Mar

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps