TikTok and the US government have been at loggerheads for some time. So much so that it was decided that if ByteDance, which owns TikTok, does not sell the platform, it will have to stop completely in the United States. It now appears that TikTok has long offered the US government the option of shutting down the platform entirely.
TikTok offered a so-called “kill switch” in 2022, a dead switch that could take the platform offline in order to address data concerns. In the end, things turned out differently: The US government believes TikTok is sharing US user data with the Chinese government, and to sever these potential Chinese ties, ByteDance would have to sell the app.
ByteDance v. United States of America
ByteDance denies it will share data with the Chinese government and criticizes the law requiring the sale of TikTok: “This law is a radical departure from this country’s tradition of defending an open internet. It sets a dangerous precedent where politicians go after a platform if it doesn’t like its expression of opinion and can even force it to Sell or close.
TikTok is appealing the law. It states that the US government rejected any serious settlement talks after 2022 and also did not want to accept such a dead man's switch as evidence of the efforts ByteDance was willing to make. The idea is that using that button would give the US government the power to suspend the platform if it did not follow certain rules, but according to the Chinese company, the Americans did not need that.
gravity
Now it's the other way around: TikTok is supposedly not adhering to the rules and the app should be sold accordingly. The US government is said to have ignored calls to further discuss the matter, including an offer to inspect the Transparency Center it has established in the US district of Maryland. And in September, we'll hear what the judge ultimately rules on the dispute between the US government and TikTok. If the US government wins, TikTok has until January 2025 to divest the US portion of TikTok. Then Americans won't have access to the social video platform at all.
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