GEOFF BENNETT: TikTok might soon be banned are under new ownership in the U.S. That's what the U.S. Senate expected to approve legislation as part of a $95 billion foreign aid package.
But TikTok doesn't plan to go down without a fight.
Lisa Desjardins has more.
LISA DESJARDINS: Geoff, this bill is unprecedented in scope.
The legislation forces TikTok, whose parent company is headquartered in Beijing, to either sell within nine months or face a ban within the United States.
The idea won wide support in Congress based on what they say are real national security concerns about China.
But TikTok says it has spent billions to wall off U.S. data and that this is an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
Some of its users say it's xenophobic.
President Joe Biden plans to sign the law.
What's it mean?
To drill down, I'm joined by David McCabe, who covers technology policy for The New York Times.
And, David, let's start off by, how do you ban something used by almost 200 million people?
DAVID MCCABE, The New York Times: So, the mechanism of this bill is simple.
It says that app stores run by companies like Apple or Google couldn't carry TikTok, couldn't make it available for download, and that the same is true of Web hosting companies.
Think about the sort of invisible infrastructure of the Internet, of servers that host apps and help maintain them.
LISA DESJARDINS: Now, there's also the sale aspect about this.
How much do you estimate or how much do people think TikTok could be worth?
And we know there's an issue with its algorithm, that perhaps the parent company might not have to sell the algorithm.
How does all that play in here?
DAVID MCCABE: So, these are key questions.
It's expected that the app will be extremely expensive, which would limit the pool of potential buyers to companies that have a lot of cash or groups of investors, like private equity firms, that could pull capital together.
And then there is this question of, will they sell the algorithm that recommends that endless video of feed -- that endless feed of videos to users?
Will they sell that along with the app?
It's obviously a very important feature.
It's also something that the Chinese government has suggested they might want to restrict leaving the country.
LISA DESJARDINS: I have read someone compare that to buying Coca-Cola without actually getting the recipe for the soda itself.
You said extremely expensive.
I am curious.
What are we talking about here?
Tens of billions of dollars?
What's the range?
DAVID MCCABE: I think that analysts have generally estimated, yes, at least tens of billions of dollars.
LISA DESJARDINS: So, then something that expensive, David, who actually can buy it, and can that be done within nine months, as this law would set out?
DAVID MCCABE: So that is the question here.
And, of course, the Senate pushed to extend the deadline in this bill to give them a little bit more time to play with to bring about a sale.
And there are questions here, right?
How would they separate TikTok from ByteDance, its parent company?
What amount of time would that take, even if they could find a buyer quickly?
And then there are questions about, could a sale survive antitrust review?
The Biden administration has, of course, been very aggressive in trying to stop corporate consolidation and growth through these antitrust agencies, like the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission.
So you could imagine that some potential buyers - - think about the big tech companies -- could get a lot of scrutiny from the government, and that could slow down the process as well.
LISA DESJARDINS: TikTok itself, in a statement, has said that this tramples on the free speech rights of this country and would devastate businesses and the economy.
What do we know exactly about the potential economic effect?
How much of there is one?
DAVID MCCABE: So I think questions about the economic effect will come down to how this ultimately nets out, right?
Is there a sale?
Is there a ban?
Obviously, though, a lot of people do make a living on TikTok as creators or by advertising their small businesses.
So the question about what happens to them is certainly one that people have and one that TikTok has tried to focus on to say, this isn't about a big company, this isn't about the Chinese government, it's about these small businesses that use the app.
LISA DESJARDINS: From your perspective, how unprecedented is this by the U.S. government, by Congress, some -- a move like this involving a major business?
DAVID MCCABE: The precedents that the supporters of this bill cite are a couple.
There's one that the U.S. generally forbids some foreign ownership of traditional media, and that the U.S. forced a Chinese company to sell Grindr, the dating app, a few years ago.
But, of course, Grindr is relatively small compared to TikTok, which says it has about 170 million users in the United States.
So the government has not tried to do this with an app of this scope, as far as we can tell, ever.
LISA DESJARDINS: Now, as I mentioned, Congress overwhelmingly supported this idea of forcing a ban or a sale.
But they generally, members of Congress, aren't using TikTok.
I know.
I have asked them, as opposed to young people who are using TikTok who oppose this and think this is an infringement on their rights.
Can you talk about the generational divide here?
And could there be cultural impact beyond just the sale or ban?
DAVID MCCABE: Well, that's certainly something we're watching.
I mean, I think you have seen President Biden, his campaign got on TikTok.
They want to reach those young voters.
But they're also fully supporting, the administration is also fully supporting this effort.
So I think the big question is, how much do young people who use this app care about this measure?
And, again, that may have to do with, does this result in a sale to a new company?
Does it result in a ban?
I will note that there are other products that, of course, have tried to capture some of TikTok's energy.
Think about YouTube or Instagram.
So a question that is worth tracking is whether or not some TikTok users might migrate there, even if there is a ban.
LISA DESJARDINS: David, what about the world reaction here?
DAVID MCCABE: We spent some time reporting in recent weeks with digital rights activists around the world.
And a lot of them say that they are worried that this measure could impact the United States' ability to make the case abroad for a free and open Internet.
So that is something we are tracking going forward as well.
LISA DESJARDINS: David McCabe of The New York Times, thank you.
DAVID MCCABE: Thank you.
