Karl Bode writes:
While it seemed like our national policy hysteria over TikTok had waned slightly in 2024, it bubbled up once again last week upon rumors that the White House is supporting a “welcome and important” new bill that would effectively ban TikTok from operating in the United States.
The bipartisan bill (full text) — which moved forward last week in spite of TikTok’s ham-fisted attempt to overload Congress with phone calls from users — sponsored by Reps Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, prevents all ByteDance-controlled applications from enjoying app store availability or web hosting services in the U.S., unless TikTok “severs ties to entities like ByteDance that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary.” Basically, the bill wants ByteDance to divest TikTok, preferably to an American company.
[…]
But banning TikTok, while refusing to pass a privacy law or regulate data brokers (which traffic in significantly greater volumes of sensitive data at much greater collective scale), winds up mostly being a performative endeavor driven more by anti-competitive intent (and a desire to control the flow and scope of modern news, information and propaganda) than any desire for serious reform.
Read more at TechDirt.