That's likely to happen on a wider scale if the Biden Administration pushed for an immediate ban, experts said. It's likely why they are asking for TikTok to sell its US business, Shmulik said.
China is likely to oppose the path to any kind of sale of TikTok's US assets before bidding even starts. In particular, China would likely not allow a sale to include its content-recommendation algorithm to a US entity, which is seen as the company's secret sauce.
China views the transfer of TikTok's algorithm into another country's hands as a national security concern, said David Glancy, a professor at the Institute of World Politics. The US government knows that very well, Glancy suggests, but, in going this route the Americans can say they at least tried to work out a better solution than a ban.
"The president can kind of come out and say, look, we gave them a chance to run as an independent kind of company, they refused it, so China wants to be involved in it. We can't have that for security reasons and therefore here comes a ban," Shmulik said.
Experts say the best outcome is a framework for how Chinese tech and media companies can operate in the US
Some experts say the government is genuine about trying to find another solution besides a ban — in part because the relationship between the US and China is so entwined that banning TikTok isn't a long-term solution.
"In some ways TikTok is the face of US/China tech competition now," said Lindsay Gorman, a senior fellow for emerging technologies at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at GMF. "There's a real question of whether a TikTok ban or sale is gonna be a one-off, or are we gonna really put in place some better systems."
There are many other companies looking at what TikTok has achieved in garnering a global user base, and following the same playbook. For example, Temu and Shein are extremely popular Chinese companies with apps available in the US. Like TikTok, both platforms collect user data from US customers as part of their day-to-day operations, Insider previously reported.
Gorman is closely watching Warner's RESTRICT Act, which she supports on the basis that it doesn't single out TikTok. That approach may be the more holistic approach that threads the needle on policy, appeasing the national security community. Either way, experts like Gorman and Glancy said, something has to be done given the rise of China-owned apps in America.
"Across the board there's a re-look at China and China technology sort of in a bigger way," Glancy said. "From a US national security view, I think it's overdue
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