The dramatic situation of TikTok. The United States and the EU are striking simultaneously. They want serious changes

President Joe Biden announced that on Wednesday, April 24, he will sign a package of bills, including regulations regarding TikTok. If the law comes into force, ByteDance will have nine months (with an option to extend it for another 90 days) to sell the application to an American entity. Otherwise, TikTok will be blocked in the USA – he sums up

USA attacks TikTok. They will force its sale

Last week, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives, and on Tuesday the regulations passed the Senate. The White House has previously passed similar legislation, but the Senate has not taken it up. This time, however, he was forced to do so because the new requirements were included in the law on support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Washington has been raising alarms for many months that TikTok is actually controlled by the Chinese government and is used by the local authorities for spying.

TikTok issued a statement indicating that it intends to challenge the regulations in court as soon as the bill is signed. Some lawyers claim that the ban is unconstitutional and the case will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court in the future.

ByteDance has repeatedly said that the company is not affiliated with China, its headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and its investors – – come 60 percent from China. from all over the world, 20 percent the company belongs to its co-founders and another 20 percent. from employees. The company also argues that out of five members of its management board, five are Americans. However, these assurances were not enough for American politicians. TikTok is a clone of the Chinese application Doyuin, and Bytedance was founded in Beijing.

The European Union is taking on TikTok. The new version of the application aroused controversy

The United States went on the warpath against TikTok a long time ago. For the European Union, this is also not the first clash with the application, because last year the European Commission banned the use of TikTok on the official phones of officials. However, actions against the app are gaining momentum as Americans force the sale of TikTok. However, the EU is still looking at a new version of the application.

TikTok Lite, as we are talking about it, is now available in France and Spain. However, the EC has doubts as to the principle of operation of the program. The new version differs from the standard application in benefits that can be obtained, among others: for watching the video or giving likes. The virtual coins obtained in this way can then be spent on other goods that have real value. In a sense, TikTok becomes an issuer of real currency, but this is not what worries the European Commission. The problem is the implementation of the application without conducting appropriate analyses, especially regarding addictive mechanisms. This is even more problematic because TikTok lacks effective age verification mechanisms, which is why EU investigations are already underway.

TikTok had until April 18 to provide a risk assessment of the Lite version of the app. The deadline was not met, therefore it was extended to Tuesday, April 23. The company must submit the rest of the documents and explanations requested by the European Commission by May 3. If TikTok fails to meet the deadlines, the Commission may impose a fine of 1%. annual turnover or global turnover of the supplier and periodic penalties of up to 5%. the supplier’s average daily income or worldwide annual turnover.

Moreover, if the company fails to provide the required documents at all, the Commission will consider this as evidence that TikTok Lite poses a serious threat to users’ mental health. The EC told the company that if they did not submit a risk assessment, the application would be suspended until this issue was clarified.