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Will the ban on TikTok reach Ukraine?
The Chinese company ByteDance has 9 months, with the possibility of extending this period up to a year, in order to reach an agreement to sell the super popular social network TikTok.
US President Joe Biden has signed a bill to potentially ban the social network TikTok. According to the document, the Chinese company ByteDance has 270 days to sell TikTok, otherwise the social network will be banned in the United States. January 19, 2025 is the deadline for the sale of TikTok, but Biden can extend it by another 90 days if he sees progress on the sale.
What is the danger of TikTok
The U.S. move to ban the social network comes amid widespread concern that the Chinese company could hand over data about American users to authorities in Beijing, as required by China's national security law. Singapore-based TikTok insists it does not store information about American users in China.
It remains an open question how China will react and whether the authorities will allow ByteDance to sell TikTok. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, wrote that the Chinese government believes that blocking the US is better than selling.
The lock in the US means that the social network will be blocked in US app stores and on "internet hosts" that support it. This would effectively limit new downloads of the app and interactions with its content.
The reaction of the social network
Bloomberg previously reported that TikTok plans to challenge the law in court. Litigation may ultimately change the timing of the sale.
TikTok says the ban will affect 170 million Americans, destroy 7 million businesses, and cost the US economy $24 billion that the social network generated each year.
The USA is not the first
A number of countries have long had full or partial restrictions on TikTok: India banned the social network from 2020, Afghanistan - from 2022, the application does not work in Iran and Kyrgyzstan.
Installing TikTok on government devices is prohibited in Taiwan and some EU countries, the UK, Canada and Australia. In 30 US states and New York City, TikTok is prohibited from being used on government employees' work smartphones.
In particular, the White House obliged its own employees, as well as employees of the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, to remove the application from official smartphones and systems within 30 days from February 2023.
Many college administrations block access to the app on campus Wi-Fi networks.
In May 2023, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed into law a ban on TikTok in the state, the first such ban in the country. TikTok appealed this decision in court.
What to expect in Ukraine?
Ukrainian legislation on sanctions contains grounds for their introduction, in particular when one of the allies has introduced them either against an individual or a legal entity, says People's Deputy, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.
At the same time, the People's Deputy noted that there are no legislative initiatives in the parliament to ban Tiktok.
"At the level of the parliament, there is currently an initiative of People's Deputy Mykola Knyazhytsky on interaction with social networks, and if it is recognized as not having a transparent ownership system, will not create a representative office to work with Ukraine, then there may be restrictions on its use, but from the state , not citizens. There are no other initiatives regarding the functioning of social networks, and I am not sure that they will appear in the near future," the head of the Committee emphasized.
Answering the question whether the ban on TikTok in the USA could lead to a similar decision in Ukraine, Yurchyshyn noted that one of the reasons for the introduction of sanctions in our sanctions legislation is the presence of a natural or legal person on the sanctions lists of our partners. "That's why such a decision of the USA can happen, but the ball is strictly in our court and everything will depend on the position of our special services," he added.
