U.S. TikTok ban is less likely than Bytedance selling app, social media expert says

TikTok has already been at least partially banned in 13 countries, and that number might go up to 14 if the United States Senate passes the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Marc Berkman, CEO of the Organizations for Social Media Safety, joins TheStreet to discuss why the U.S. government wants to ban the social media app for good.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: Big news of the week. House lawmakers in Washington passing a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless its owner divest. Can you help us better understand what exactly is going on, Marc, and how did we get here?

MARC BERKMAN: Absolutely So TikTok is owned by the it's owned by Bytedance, which is in China. So it's also theoretically owned by the Chinese government. And that creates some likely very serious national security concerns and that Congress has adopted. And so we have this legislation that would require a sale of TikTok for it to be able to be used in the U.S. to protect us from those national security concerns. That passed on a very strong bipartisan vote out of the House. And now the bill is pending in the Senate.

J.D. DURKIN: If it passes the senate, the President, who would have to sign it to make it law of the land, has previously said he would do so. He would sign the bill if it passed. Aside from the fact that the Biden campaign is on TikTok, ironically, what are the chances the ban would actually go into effect, assuming a ban means the company is unable to divest?

MARC BERKMAN: Yeah, I'm of the belief that if this actually happens and there still is a hurdle in the Senate here, it's hard to move legislation in the Senate hopeful that this will get the full airing and consideration. But given the revenue, the money at stake, I would be optimistic that there would be a sale of TikTok. It would not mean the end of TikTok in the United States. And if there's not a sale, that really does kind of prove the theory here that there is a severe national security concern if China is going to block that sale with all of the potential profit at stake.