TikTok is the star of social media. Upstart networks such as Donald Trump’s Truth Social and Meta’s Threads might reach thousands or millions of users, but TikTok’s audience exceeds a billion. It launched an in-app US shop before Elon Musk’s X, and its popularity has forced YouTube and Instagram to create rival short-video formats. These qualities make it an attractive acquisition target. Its price could, on paper, exceed $180bn.
On Wednesday, US lawmakers voted in favour of a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to either sell the app or face an app store ban. There are two areas of concern: possible collection of US user data by China and the potential for China to use the app to influence its audience.
TikTok is a source of news for its young viewers, though it should be noted that its main appeal lies in entertainment. After all, the app’s most-liked video involves a girl pulling faces at the camera. The company has said ByteDance is not controlled by the Chinese government and that all US data is routed to Oracle Cloud.