Analyst Predicts TikTok Shutdown In US By Next Year Ahead Of Senate Vote: 'Will Not Operate Here...'

Policy analyst Ed Mills from Raymond James anticipates that the popular social media platform TikTok may cease operations in the U.S. next year.

What Happened: On Monday, Mills expressed his views on the future of TikTok in the U.S. during CNBC’s “Last Call.”

He stated, "Once this was added on to the bills last week, this [became] inevitable," ahead of the Senate vote on the TikTok crackdown bill.

Mills explained that the bill aims to prevent TikTok from seeking a favorable judge, instead placing the case in the DC Circuit Court of Appeal, a court likely to side with Congress and the President. This would allow the forced divestiture to proceed.

"In my opinion, come next year TikTok as we know it will not operate here in the U.S,” Mills added.

His comments come in the wake of the U.S. House of Representatives passing a bill that could significantly impact TikTok’s future in the U.S. The legislation proposes that TikTok must be sold within a year or face a ban from U.S. app stores.

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Why It Matters: The bill, part of a larger package aimed at providing aid and bolstering national security measures in support of Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, has sparked controversy. TikTok has voiced concerns about the potential infringement on the free speech rights of American users. The social media giant, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been given a year to sell its stake or face the ban.

Notable figures such as Edward Snowden and Elon Musk have also expressed their opposition to the proposed TikTok ban. Snowden, a former computer security consultant for the National Security Agency, supported Musk’s stance, stating that censors, speech police, and book burners were symbols of an un-free society.

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