The Senate is ready to vote on a bill that could ban TikTok. Here’s what happens next.

My parents thought they were smart.

As birthdays and holidays approached, a lot of “useful” gifts were smuggled in – necessities like latest shoes, clothes, a scientific calculator I needed for math class, etc. – together with all of the cool stuff like toys, dolls, etc. .

It made a useful necessity appear to be a gift, when actually it was them saying, “Here’s the thing I want you to use, so I’ll wrap it like a gift and smuggle it in next to all the other cool stuff you might have actually asked for.”

It was like, “Oh cool, Western Barbie!” after which, “Oh, great. “Knee-high socks.”

That’s essentially what the U.S. House of Representatives did with a bill that could potentially lead to a ban of the TikTok app within the United States.

On Saturday, o The Chamber adopted the legislative package this includes $95 billion in funding – $60.8 billion in aid for Ukraine and $26 billion in aid for Israel and relief for Gaza.

The same legislative package includes a bill that would give ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, nine months to sell the favored app to a US company or face a ban in that country.

The The Senate will vote on the bill late Tuesday or early Wednesdayand that would mean sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature, and make no mistake, he’ll sign it into law.

Once this happens, the clock will start ticking and our beloved TikTok will need to determine what to do next if it wants to stay operational within the US

Congress is seizing on the concept that the Chinese government can have access to TikTok user data, and since China is a bogeyman within the eyes of the US government, they have to accomplish that! Down! All! possible! to prevent China from doing things like interfering in US elections, using social media platforms to spread propaganda, and the like.

But wait. Hasn’t election interference already happened here with American owned social media platform? Isn’t there one other American owned social media platform? Is this a hotbed of disinformation and propaganda?

In my opinion, this is all planned.

Do not get me flawed; Concerns concerning the Chinese government accessing the private data of US residents are a fact of life and I’m not trying to downplay it in any respect, but we cannot overlook the very fact that what the US government condemns has happened and is actively happening within the country today and doesn’t appear to be for Congress to hurry up to fix this problem.

This gives you: “American billionaires selling our data is cool, but other people doing it is not.”

Another a part of me thinks it has a lot to do with the best way TikTok is gobbling up all of the social media sites within the algorithm department.

My TikTok algorithm is so good that I never click the “follow” tab because I do know I’ll see all the things within the “For You” tab. The For You page is all the time up to date and displays information in real time – almost on an ongoing basis.

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TikTok has change into the fundamental source of data and news for many individuals. It stands out for something that began on Twitter – ongoing conversations. TikTok makes this higher because videos are shown based on what you are already watching and fascinating with. He knows what you would like and offers it to you. But users also need to know the way to separate factual information from misinformation.

Neither Mark Zuckerberg nor Elon Musk has managed to capture this lightning in a bottle, and indeed they appear unwilling to accomplish that.

Are there lively efforts on other sites to block information sharing?

Think of all your mates whose Facebook or Instagram account has been flagged for talking concerning the Gaza genocide.

Think about how Black people on Twitter are punished for fighting against racists, while racists run rampant and unchecked throughout the app.

If an American company were to buy TikTok, which American company would it not be?

Would Elon Musk determine to buy it? Mark Zuckerberg? Could they even do it? TikTok is valued at around $150 billion, according to the Washington Post.and there aren’t many individuals who’ve that sort of money to spend on this sort of enterprise.

As the Post notes, a sale would also pose a host of legal challenges, and neither China nor ByteDance will allow the sale of the TikTok algorithm, which, when you ask me, is what this is all about.

As I discussed earlier, neither Zuck nor Musk have been able to get their algorithms to do what TikTok does, and perhaps that’s by design, or perhaps they only cannot figure it out. Either way, the sale of this algorithm to an American company will definitely profit anyone who wants to exploit it for their very own purposes – or crush it completely.

China does have something to say on this matter, nonetheless, considering that in 2020 it added “recommendation algorithms” to its export control list, which suggests that any sale of a product of this sort requires approval from the Chinese government, and that tells me something, that China is not going to come out this manner.

In any case, we at the moment are waiting for the inevitable and we should always keep a close eye on it, because whatever happens with TikTok shall be a harbinger of what will occur to the exchange of data and all the marketplace of ideas.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you all.