A Ban? A Sale? The Big Questions Hanging Over TikTok
Summary
The bill itself never uses the word “ban,” but it frames the measure as a necessary effort “to protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign-adversary-controlled applications such as TikTok.” TikTok sees it as a “shutdown,” a characterization that the lawmakers behind it have contested. A spokesman for Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the House committee that wrote the bill, told DealBook that ByteDance could potentially change its recommendation algorithm, which is covered by China’s new export controls. “We think it’s a coin flip as to whether the Fed cuts interest rates in June or if it takes a more conservative approach and waits until September,” Skyler Weinand, chief investment officer at Regan Capital, wrote to investors on Tuesday. But Volkswagen on Wednesday joined the growing chorus of big German brands that have rejected government-led attempts to fight back amid a European Union investigation into state subsidies for Chinese carmakers. The world’s second-biggest economy is Germany’s biggest trading partner, and the auto giants have benefited: Last year, Volkswagen sold more cars in China than any other company, and the market was a huge profit driver for BMW and Mercedes-Benz, too.