Now that the House of Representatives voted to pass the bill that bans TikTok, the decision has moved on to the Senate. As the bill is taking its final steps to become law, TikTok continues to call on its users to fight against the ban.
TikTok Asks Users for Help Again
Legislators are so close to achieving their ultimate goal, and that is to ban TikTok in the US. The Senate is now the last obstacle to jump through before that happens, especially since US President Joe Biden already said that he would sign the bill into law.
With the turnout, TikTok is once again rallying support from its users. US users received another in-app message, saying that they can use their voice to protect the community they love. This time, it is a more direct approach.
As shown by Engadget, The notification now comes with a call button, one that will ask the users their zip code so that they may contact the Senator in their state. "Tell you Senator how important TikTok is to you. Ask them to vote no on the TikTok ban. #KeepTikTok."
Just above the call button, the messages also said that the vote of the House of Representatives impacts 170 million Americans, and that if the Senate votes "the future of creativity and communities you love on TikTok could be shut down."
This already comes as the second message that asks users to protest against the ban. Before the House even signed the bill, TikTok pushed a notification with a lengthier message, asking users to help the company stop the looming ban.
TikTok may already be in trouble for sending out the messages that pull users to their side. Lawmakers accused the company of interfering with the process since it resulted in Congressional offices being overwhelmed with calls.
The amount of effort that the company is making to prevent the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" is likely more about protecting the business, given what the company will face when the bill does become law.
Read also: TikTok Ban and the US Government: A Case of Restrictions, State Control, and Espionage Fears
TikTok's Choices When the Ban Bill is Passed
There's an option for TikTok to avoid being banned, but it won't exactly be easy for both parties. The US government said that the only way TikTok could continue its operations in the US was if at least the US portion of the company was divested.
This solves the security concern over a China-based company handling US user data. However, there are a lot of problems that could arise with the sale. For one, TikTok is already a very popular app, which means that its valuation is already tens of billions of dollars.
Other than the sale, it's also not clear how much of TikTok would be sold off. If it's only the US business, then the complication might be with how the app will communicate with the other parts of the company, all of which will still be under ByteDance.
