Social media app TikTok is facing a new level of scrutiny today after a House ruling requiring that parent company ByteDance sell off the company within six months or face a ban from the U.S. market.
With the bill now on the move to the Senate, many are left wondering if the wildly popular app will soon vanish — a move that would likely be a major upset for the 170 million Americans that use it.
Related: TikTok may soon ask us to download another app
Wedbush securities analyst Dan Ives spoke with CNBC in an interview on March 13 after the vote passed the House, calling the next stage of the battle between the government and ByteDance "a game of high-stakes poker."
"Is this [TikTok] eventually acquired by big tech?" Ives muses. "What could the valuation be, call it $100 billion plus. But then, we believe 25% chance this ultimately passes, just given the regulatory spider web that we see, clearly Meta benefits and others."
Ives calls the situation a "slippery slope," saying its "playing with fire" to go this route.
When asked what retaliatory measures China could take in reaction to this vote, Ives said "For Cook, for Musk, that's the issue here. And as we've talked about a lot, it's not roses and rainbows for Apple, for Tesla, in China. The retaliatory is what you worry about here. Not for Meta Platforms (META) and others, but specifically for Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA) . That's why we say we're playing with fire...it could have massive implications from a retaliatory in terms of the U.S./China tech war."
TikTok spoke out against the vote earlier today in a statement, saying, “This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban. We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”
Related: TikTok could potentially get a new owner who may harvest user data
