Bytedance Ltd's social networking app TikTok has spent a lot of time in the spotlight over the past few years, leading long-term social media behemoths like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to copy its short-form video format.
While that effort has yielded varying degrees of success for those businesses, TikTok has come under scrutiny by the U.S. government, which alleges that ByteDance has ties with the Chinese government and that TikTok could be used to "control data collection on millions of users," FBI director Christopher Wray said.
In December of 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) unveiled a bipartisan bill specifically crafted to ban TikTok from operating in the United States.
“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day," Rubio said. "We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”
How a TikTok Ban Could Influence Your Portfolio
While owning TikTok stock requires a bit of a workaround that many don't want to trouble themselves with, investor behavior around the social media company's potential banning has previously led to surges in competitive stocks.
Now CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer is weighing on on that behavior, sharing two simple words of advice for those watching what could be TikTok's downfall: that it's time to invest in another social media giant if you haven't already, namely Facebook parent Meta (META).
Cramer's advice tends to be well-regarded, with some even going as far as to map out the success rate of his recommendations in great detail.
"...the one-day returns on both his buy and sell recommendations have been phenomenal," the creator of the analysis said after sharing the data.
Due in part to recent layoffs and public struggles over the last year (especially when it comes to Meta's investment in the metaverse), the company's stock may be a bargain at $141.73, especially when compared to its $380 price tag in late 2021.
