A new bill has been voted on by the US Congress that will ban TikTok in the United States, unless Chinese parent company ByteDance sells the platform’s US stakes. The bill was passed by 79 votes to 18, and is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden, who has previously indicated approval of the legislation. ByteDance is expected to have approximately nine months to sell TikTok, or the platform will be banned from US markets and permanently removed from the App Store and Google Play Store.
The bill was initially proposed last month, with lawmakers expressing concern over the app’s national security threat and potential as a Chinese espionage tool. TikTok disputes these claims and has denied that the Chinese government could obtain access to the data of its millions of American users. The app has also been banned from government-owned devices in over 30 American states, Canada and the European Union. In addition, India, Taiwan and Afghanistan also announced nationwide bans in 2021 and 2022.
According to a report from The Washington Post, ByteDance plans to challenge the bill in court, arguing that the legislation violates millions of its US-based users’ right to free speech. The company has previously proposed a plan to safeguard US users’ data by storing it with prominent American tech company Oracle, but negotiations between ByteDance and the US government broke down.
TikTok is yet to make an official comment, but stated in an internal email on Saturday that it will fight the legislation, calling it the beginning of a long process. The bill was included in a US$95 billion foreign aid package that includes military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. TikTok responded to the package on Twitter, stating that the House of Representatives is using cover of important foreign and humanitarian aid to pass a bill that “tramples” on the free speech of 170 million Americans, devastates seven million businesses, and contributes $24 billion annually to the US economy
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