TikTok’s fate in the U.S. has never been more in doubt after the House of Representatives approved a bill last weekend that gives its parent company two options: sell it to an approved buyer or see it banned. Experts say the bill is now likely to be approved in the Senate, and President Joe Biden has signaled he would sign it. But it could take years for the TikTok ban to actually go into effect, since its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, is likely to challenge the statute in court.
While ByteDance, which owns other companies, is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, TikTok would fetch less than that, experts say — especially if it is sold without its powerful recommendation algorithm. But Boltansky believes ByteDance is unlikely to agree to any kind of sale. The Chinese government has said as much, arguing that it regards the algorithm as a national security asset. And without that, TikTok becomes much less appealing to potential buyers. So is TikTok in the U.S.