On April 20th, it was reported that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, took to the social media platform X on April 19th to express clear opposition to the U.S. ban on TikTok. He stated:
"I believe TikTok should not be banned in the United States, even though such bans may benefit X platform. This action goes against freedom of speech and expression."
On March 13th this year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill titled the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Exploiting Applications Act".
The bill mandates that ByteDance must divest control of TikTok within approximately six months, or else TikTok faces a ban in the United States, known as the "sell or be banned" provision.
Subsequently, there were reports indicating that the new bill in the House of Representatives would give ByteDance up to one year to divest TikTok, which is longer than the previously stipulated six months. The House is expected to pass these bills on April 20th, and then the Senate is likely to quickly take up the review.
Prior to this, the Senate also discussed extending the deadline to one year, considering postponing the ban until after the presidential election.
On the 18th of this month, TikTok responded to the latest developments by stating that the House of Representatives, under the guise of a bill related to humanitarian aid, is once again pushing forward a ban bill. This bill, according to TikTok, would trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, ruin 7 million businesses, and shut down a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy annually.
