Why the U.S. Voted to Force TikTok to Be Sold or Banned
New York TimesApr 20
ByteDance Denies It's Exploring TikTok Sale
The Facts
ByteDance, social media platform TikTok's Chinese parent company, Thursday denied a report from The Information saying it was exploring a sale of the app to a US-based company.
In a post on Toutiao, a media platform owned by ByteDance, the company said it has no intentions to sell despite US Pres. Joe Biden this week signing a law requiring a sale of TikTok to a US entity within 270 days under threat of a ban.
The Spin
Pro-China narrative
This US law isn't about national security, it's about commercially undermining China. ByteDance will fight this in the courts, and if it loses it might shut down the app and let the US deal with the backlash of a world without TikTok.
Nerd narrative
There's a 30% chance that TikTok US will be sold to a US entity before Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.