TikTok Facing Potential US Ban as Congress Passes Bill Requiring Sale

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that will either ban TikTok from app stores operating in the country or force Chinese company ByteDance to sell the short-form video app.

tiktok logo
The landmark bill has now passed both chambers of Congress, having already been approved by the House of Representatives. President Biden says he will sign the bill into law on Wednesday.

Once that happens, TikTok will be banned in the United States if ByteDance does not divest ownership within nine months, with a possible three-month extension to that deadline if a deal is in progress. China would need to approve any sale, but the Chinese government has already made it clear that it will "firmly oppose" such a move.

ByteDance is also expected to launch a legal challenge against the bill by arguing that it will deprive the app's 170 million U.S. users of their First Amendment rights protecting freedom of speech.

U.S. lawmakers want TikTok to be sold to a company outside of China over concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data from users located in the United States. If Beijing made the request, ByteDance would not be able to refuse. There have also been suggestions that Chinese authorities could use TikTok to spread political propaganda.

ByteDance has attempted to alleviate these fears by storing data from U.S. users on servers owned by Oracle, but the White House and lawmakers do not believe that is enough. There are a limited number of companies that would be able to afford TikTok, while most tech giants would likely be prevented from acquiring it due to antitrust concerns.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: TikTok

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Top Rated Comments

Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
13 months ago
Good. It brings nothing positive. Just more time-wasting by scrolling through absolute garbage videos.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lxmeta Avatar
13 months ago
Not using it and do not care about that app.
But the argument is quite iconic! US bans the app for pretty much the same legal framework that exists in the US.
No, the "but we are the good ones, so we can't do evil" does not count.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cthompson94 Avatar
13 months ago
I would honestly be more excited if the same thing happened to Meta and all these other social media platforms that basically do the same thing...
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
4nNtt Avatar
13 months ago
It is always scary when the left and the right unite against first amendment rights. If there is any credibility to their concerns, it could be solved by requiring algorithms to be transparent. This authoritarian approach will hopefully be shot down by the courts.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
brofkand Avatar
13 months ago
Whoever supports this and thinks it will end with TikTok is a fool. Never allow the government to take any power it should not have, because it will never give it back and will always want more.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DominikHoffmann Avatar
13 months ago
What has me worried is that that Democrats and Republicans are almost unanimous about wanting to ban TikTok.

Will the bill be applied to Telegram in the future?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)