NEW YORK– The former US Secretary of the Treasury during the presidency of Donald Trump indicated that he wants to gather investors to buy TikTok, in the midst of a dispute with China and after the approval in the Lower House of the United States Congress of a bill that could ban the platform .
The short video application is one of the most popular social networks in the world. But the fact that it belongs to the Chinese technology giant ByteDance, subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party, worries Western powers.
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill by a large majority that would force TikTok to separate from its parent company in China or risk the app being banned in the country.
Steve Mnuchin, the former Treasury Secretary in the Republican administration of former President Donald Trump, announced this Thursday that he is preparing a purchase plan.
“I think the legislation should be passed and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC, assuring that Tiktok is “a big business and (…) should be owned by American companies.”
The bill still has to pass the US Senate, where the outcome is uncertain.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong called on Washington to allow “an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies to invest and operate in the United States.”
“China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the spokesperson said.
China is the worst example to talk about business freedom when in the last three years during the Joe Biden government it has increased its harassment of American companies in its territory.
And it stands out from the beginning, the enormous interest of the Chinese government in the TikTok platform and its persistent defense should not be by chance whenever it seeks to suppress this application.
Before the vote, China warned that a possible ban of the social network in the United States would be tantamount to “shooting itself in the foot.”
China has been blocking Western social networks such as Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, for years and maintains strong internet censorship.
The vote in the Senate
US lawmakers approved the bill by 352 votes in favor and 65 against, a rare show of unity in a divided chamber.
For its part, the White House confirmed that if it is finally approved, President Joe Biden will sign the law, officially known as the Protecting Americans from Requests Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act.
It’s unclear how the Senate, where some lawmakers are cautious about taking drastic action against an app that has 170 million users in the United States, will vote.
TikTok has always denied being under the control of the Communist Party. Its executive president, Shou Zi Chew, even urged users to speak out against the vote and several content creators on TikTok consulted by AFP expressed their opposition to the law.
Content creators are not interested, in a general sense, in the national security of this country, but rather see it as their means of lucrative business. But Congress goes beyond a simple company and has many reasons to act on the direct dependence of that platform on the Chinese regime, which has not tired of defending the application as if it were part of the Asian army or intelligence services. Chinese.
The application has long been at the center of tensions between China and the United States, which clash over technological, trade and human rights issues.
European regulators are also concerned and the European Commission asked TikTok and other platforms such as Facebook, Google and facing the electoral processes.
Italy’s competition authority fined TikTok 10 million euros (almost $11 million) for not sufficiently protecting minors.
Source: With information from AFP.
