TikTok, Chew, and Biden: Toward a Mutual Respect Agreement on the D2D/CFT Correspondence

Chew turned out to be wrong. TikTok promised to invest in the platform better after Biden signed the bill, and posted a video of Chew talking to his users. I am unsure whether that gentle optimism will change into something more aggressive in the next year as the new law looms closer.

WIRED Politics Lab — What Happens to the Social Media Platform TikTok in the U.S. After the ByteDance Convention?

Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. Makena Kelly is @kellymakena. The person is called “Tori Elliott”. We would love to receive your submissions at [email protected]. Jake is the producer of our show. Jake Lummus and Amar Lal are working on this episode. Chris Brinck is Global Head of Audio at Condé Nast and Jordan Bell is the Executive Producer of Audio Development.

You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:

If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for WIRED Politics Lab. We’re on Spotify too.

Joe Biden: I just signed in a law the national security package that was passed by the House of Representatives this weekend and by the Senate yesterday.

Leah Feiger: The package contained billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian support in Gaza, but it also included a provision related to the immensely popular Chinese-owned social media platform, TikTok. The platform will now have to come under American ownership within a year or face being banned in the US entirely.

We are going to discuss what happens to TikTok and how this new law affects politicians and others who use the app on the show today. WIRED Politics desks in New York feature Makena Kelly, and this week I are with them. Makena, Tori, how are you doing after this very newsy week?

In December, WIRED contributor Dexter Thomas sat down with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew during the app’s first-ever music festival, in Arizona. In the interview, Chew claims he believes skepticism over TikTok’s security will diminish as the app earns the trust of lawmakers.

There are a lot of ways this could happen. An American company or private equity fund could buy TikTok and its powerful recommendation algorithm. ByteDance was reported on by The Information as starting to work out how a sale without the platform would look like. Or, perhaps no buyer can be found and TikTok goes poof.

Microsoft suggested that it might be in a position to buy TikTok, as it is one of the only viable options for a buyer. Microsoft’s biggest subsidiary otherwise is, well, LinkedIn—and can we even call LinkedIn a TikTok rival with a straight face?

Unless TikTok or a horde of its users were to somehow win a lawsuit challenging the law signed this week—a lawsuit the company has already said it plans to file—all the potential outcomes lead to an app that is dramatically different.