The House passed a bill on Saturday that would force a sale of TikTok from its Chinese owner ByteDance within a year or ban the app in the US.
The Senate could vote on the bill in the coming days. President Joe Biden had previously said he would sign it.
Reasons for ban
Threat to national security: Lawmakers are of the opinion that the China-owned app threatens national security.
User data: TikTok has around 170 million American users. Officials in both parties believe that the Chinese government could get hold of the user data.
Influence the American public: Lawmakers also think that the app can be used to change opinions. Last month, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the House intelligence committee that Beijing could use TikTok to influence the upcoming US presidential election.
TikTok says the bill would “trample” free speech. In a recent X post, the app wrote that a ban could devastate 7 million businesses and shutter a lucrative social media that contributes $24 billion to the US economy annually.
The House passed similar legislation in March, but it got stalled in the Senate.
What is different this time?
The bill is part of a larger foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine.
It extends ByteDance’s deadline to sell its TikTok stake to nine months (from six months), with a 90-day extension if Biden sees the possibility of a sale.
TikTok’s future
If the bill is passed by Congress and signed by Biden, it won’t mean an immediate ban of TikTok from US user’s devices.
Legal challenges from ByteDance, TikTokers, and the Chinese government are anticipated, which will postpone the ban.
Tech heads, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, acknowledged that a TikTok ban would benefit their social media apps, but it would also infringe on rights to freedom of speech and expression in the US.
Some lawmakers also fear that such a ban would set a precedent for forced sales of other tech companies with Chinese parents. Others question if the app’s ownership is a national security threat.