26th April, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
American rapper, DeAndre Cortez Way widely known as Soulja Boy has expressed interest in acquiring popular social media App, TikTok.
The rapper becomes the first person to indicate his interest publicly in acquiring TikTok after U.S President, Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package into law that would see the Chinese-owned social media platform banned in the U.S. if it’s not sold within nine months.
On his X handle, Soulja Boy condemned the new law, saying if the U.S authorities ban TikTok, they can also ban any other app or site in the future.
“I can’t believe yall just gon let them ban TikTok like that. And yall think it’s funny. If they do it to this app they can do it to any app or site. Not cool fr yall will see later,” he wrote.
In another post, the rapper jokingly suggested that he will buy TikTok.
Soulja Boy wrote: “How much yall want for TikTok? I’ll buy it. @tiktok_us.”
President Joe Biden, recently signed into law a bill seeking to ban TikTok. The bill which was earlier passed by the U.S. Congress requires TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within nine months, or face a ban in the U.S.
The bill, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was first introduced on 5 March and passed with a massive 352-65 vote, and 65 against it, while one member voted present.
According to CNN, the lawmakers supportive of the bill argued that the video-sharing app poses a national security threat. The house said unless the app parts ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
This, they argued, is because the Chinese government could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance and force it to hand over the data of US app users.
If enacted, the bill would require ByteDance to sell the app within five months or see it barred from the Apple and Google app stores in the US.
Biden signed the bill attached to the $95 billion foreign aid package Congress approved this week that will deliver more funding to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, on Wednesday.
TikTok has vowed to take legal action against the new law.
The app spokesperson, Alex Haurek called the law “unconstitutional” in a statement and vowed to “challenge it in court.”