What TikTok tells us about the paradox of markets right now

THERE are not many issues that attract bipartisan support in Washington these days. TikTok, however, is one. On Wednesday (Mar 13), the House of Representatives passed a bill to ban the social media app unless it is sold by its Chinese-based parent ByteDance – by a resounding 352-65 votes.

This might yet be blocked by the Senate or the courts; when Montana lawmakers tried to ban TikTok last year, there were legal appeals. Alternatively, ByteDance might agree on a sale – although this could be hard if antitrust issues hang over natural buyers, such as Microsoft. What’s more, Beijing says it opposes a sale, probably because it does not want to lose control of TikTok’s content algorithm (which is arguably a bigger national security flashpoint than data storage).

Either way, Wednesday’s vote has tossed TikTok into limbo in a way that most observers (including myself) did not expect a few months ago, given that this could anger many youthful voters – something Congress rarely wants to do.