“Sell or ban” bill passes! TikTok: won’t change data protection strategy

On the morning of the 13th of local time, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bill "to protect Americans from foreign counterparties controlling applications".

The bill requires ByteDance to divest control of its TikTok (the international version of Douyin), or TikTok will be banned in the United States, that is, "sell or ban".

In response to the vote, TikTok released a statement saying that the process was secretive and that the bill was rammed through for one reason only - it was a ban.

"We hope the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, the 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our services."

TikTok later told employees in an internal memo that it would not change the way it protects user data even if the bill passes, according to media reports.

"Our strategy remains unchanged, and we continue to believe that the best way to address national security concerns is to employ transparent, U.S.-based protections for U.S. user data and systems under strong third-party oversight, review, and verification."

But while the House of Representatives passed the bill, it still needs to be passed by the Senate and then submitted to the President for approval.

So TikTok said, "While we anticipated the outcome, we would like to emphasize again that the committee and House votes are just the beginning of a long process, not the end."