Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc., attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 17, 2022.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
Stakes in social media companies break off and Yuan Shares soared in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the Biden administration reportedly considered banning TikTok in the United States unless Chinese tech giant ByteDance divested its stake.
Snap shares soar nearly 7% after WSJ release, while Meta jumps more than 2% Report TikTok could face a ban in the U.S. if ByteDance doesn’t comply with the Biden administration’s proposals.
Both Snap and Meta are facing fierce competition from TikTok for user attention, and have launched their own short video products to compete. The average American adult is predicted to spend 55.8 minutes per day on TikTok by 2023, compared to 30.8 minutes on Snapchat, 30.6 minutes on Meta-owned Instagram, and 30.2 minutes on Meta-owned Facebook. Research via Insider Intelligence.
Last week, the White House said support for the nearest senate bill This would give the Biden administration the ability to ban TikTok in the US
U.S. lawmakers are concerned that TikTok poses a potential national security threat due to its Chinese ownership. U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia recently said, “This competition with China around who dominates the technology field is indeed the core of future national security.”
ByteDance disputed the allegations, saying in a statement on Wednesday that “divestment does not solve the problem if the goal is to protect national security: the change of ownership does not impose any new restrictions on data flow or access.”
The statement argued that “national security concerns are best addressed with transparent, U.S.-based protections of U.S. user data and systems, and the robust third-party monitoring, scrutiny, and verification we already have in place.”
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