LAFAYETTE, La. — U.S. politicians are introducing a bill to ban the popular social media platform, TikTok.
The reason? Concerns over its Chinese ownership. According to the TikTok's webpage:
"TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs. ByteDance is a privately-held global company, with roughly 60 percent owned by global institutional investors (such as Blackrock, General Atlantic, and Susquehanna International Group), 20 percent owned by the company’s founders, and 20 percent owned by its employees—including over 7,000 Americans. It is not owned or controlled by any government or state entity."
Lawmakers fearing that the tie could mean a potential security breach of its over 170 million user's data to the Chinese government. For some, the ban could be detrimental to their small business.
They also have stated whether or not they have given data to the Chinese government:
"No. Neither company has shared US user data or been asked to share any US user data with the Chinese government, nor would they if asked."
One of the 7 million businesses who could be affected by the ban is ArtistColette, who gained success after going viral for her “career hair claw clips” on the social media platform.
“I posted my first video on TikTok and within a day I had doubled the amount of followers that I had been able to garner over the course of years on Instagram,” Colette Bernard says.
Her TikTok hitting thousands upon thousands of views per video, helping her and the business flourish.
“We are a staff of five people and growing. I have multiple full-time employees and we offer benefits. We have PTO, we are a fully established businesses,” Bernard said.
Thanks to the platform, she was able to open up a store downtown and currently has half a million followers on the app. Posting content daily to further promote her brand, but that all could be at risk if the ban were to pass.
“A ban on that platform would mean basically a liquidation of my business, we would have to close something somewhere.”
In a statement via TikTok from CEO Shou Chew, he says:
"This legislation, if signed into law, will lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States. Even the bill sponsors admit that that's their goal. This bill gives more power to a handful of other social media companies. It will also take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses. It will put more than 300,000 American jobs at risk and it will take away your TikTok."
But Bernard tells KATC that her business isn’t going down without a fight.
“Of course I would try and make it work," Bernard he says. "I would never throw up my hands up and quit but it would be a substantially loss for us both financially and audience-wise we would have to cross our fingers and hope that people would find us on other platforms and without it, we would suffer."
The bill passing on March 13th with 352 voting in favor, the next steps is the move to the Senate. Then if approved, President Joe Biden stating he will sign the bill into law, ultimately banning TikTok in the United States.
The bill also gives another option, for the Chinese owned company named ByteDance only six months to find another company to offer to buy the social media platform. If they can't, it will be illegal for app stores and web hosts to offer TikTok, especially if it's controlled by a "foreign adversary." This means Apple and Google would have to remove TikTok from their stores, and internet providers would have to block it on browsers in the U.S.
To read more about the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act bill, click here.
Cocodrie by Colette is located over at 515 Jefferson St, Lafayette, LA 70501.
