Senate passes bill to TikTok: The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that could compel ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to sell the platform or face a US ban.
I find it ironic that TikTok is already banned in its country of origin. (By banned, I mean isolated from the rest of the world, has different rules, and is named something else)
What’s laughable is thinking a world super power needs social media to get information on anyone on earth. I have issues with social media and privacy in general, but to think our American owned social media is somehow not a security and privacy treat is gaslighting at best, and destructive to democracy, mentally health, and individuals freedoms at worst.
A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine, poison, a few crayons, and a spoonful of salt, and a spoon go down. Then they’d call it the Protecting Mouths With Forks Act or something.
Sometimes when Mommy and Daddy lawmakers love each other very much, they put things inside of other things that might be very bad, but they do it because they love each other very much and the kids really shouldn’t be watching what they’re doing behind closed doors.
I’m not from the US but I think it’s to enable compromise.
Some lawmakers (group A) don’t want to support either a TikTok ban or aid for Ukraine. Other lawmakers (group B) want a TikTok ban and are willing to support aid for Ukraine, even if they don’t like it that much. A third group of lawmakers (group C) wants aid for Ukraine and is willing to support a TikTok ban, even if they don’t like it that much.
No group is big enough to pass anything on its own. Therefore, group B and C agree to work together to pass both a TikTok ban and aid for Ukraine.
They could pass two laws, one banning TikTok and one providing aid to Ukraine. But they don’t trust each other. If the TikTok ban was passed first with the votes of both groups, group B could betray group C afterwards and not support aid for Ukraine. If aid for Ukraine was passed first, it would be the other way round.
Therefore, group B and C bundle TikTok ban and aid for Ukraine together into a single law. Now, neither group can betray the other.
In reality, the situation is obviously more complicated. There are more than just three groups and there are additional things included in the deal like military aid for Israel and Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Palestine.
US Federal Law does NOT require that bills only deal with a single issue. So, a single bill could send aid to Ukraine, outlaw hats and declare Tuesday, “puppy kicking day”. And that would be fully within the US Constitutional method for passing Federal laws. All that matters is that the exact same text is passed in both The House of Representatives and The Senate and is then signed by The President. There’s a whole bunch of other stuff around it (veto process, and filibuster), but the ELI5 version is both houses of Congress pass the same bill and the President signs it and thus it becomes US Federal Law.
There will, of course, be a whole other process around the law being challenged in the Courts. ByteDance will undoubtedly challenge the TikTok ban in Court. And that will take years to fully wind it’s way through the system. And the courts may issue an injunction, preventing the law from being enforced, until the decision is made. Basically saying, “nope Federal Government, you cannot enforce this until we say so”. Personally, I would expect that in this case. So, don’t expect TikTok to leave the US any time soon. Note that, this can be done to part of a law (again, I would expect this) and not the whole law at once. So, this won’t imperil US aid to Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan. It just means that we’re likely to see the bounds of US Federal Government power tested a bit. Does the US Federal Government have the power to unilaterally kick a company out of the US? I’d bet on “yes”, especially with the ties to national security. But, I could easily lose that bet.
They’re called [Riders,](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider_(legislation)) and it is to convince on-the-fence officials to support a bill by including extra measures they’re likelier to support.
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