The Chilling of TikTok

The tok is tiking... Later today, President Biden will sign a bill which, among other things, will put TikTok on the clock. Chinese parent ByteDance will have 270 days to divest its majority stake in the company or the app will be banned in the US.

Of course it won't play out this way. First and foremost, there will be lawsuits. Second, a change of control in Washington may happen before a change of control of TikTok. Third, none of this may matter anyway. By passing this bill,1 Congress has draped the service in a scarlet letter. And damned it to be bogged down in bureaucracy for its remaining days.

Regardless of the merits of this action – I happen to agree with the sale/ban, not because of the fear of data or overt propaganda, but the more subtle subversion where what is simply omitted from feeds sways the masses – I don't believe it will ultimately matter what happens in the end. TikTok's model is predicated around advertising and again, this mark and even just the uncertainty is going to make that a very big challenge going forward. The audience is massive and the demographic is key, but how is, say, McDonalds going to feel about advertising on a platform that the government has effectively deemed an enemy of the state?

The service is reported to already be bleeding money despite its size and growth, will ByteDance keep subsidizing it if revenue starts falling? Will China push them to? Which would just bolster the case against the service?

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