The US Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese owner ByteDance divests itself of the video-sharing app within nine months, amid fears the company poses a threat to the represents national security.
TikTok has denied that the Chinese government could access user data and called the bill, which passed by a vote of 79-18, unconstitutional. The bill was linked to a measure to provide a $95 billion emergency aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
President Joe Biden has said he will sign the bill into law on Wednesday.
What do we know about the TikTok ban and what happens next?
Why the ban on TikTok? What impact will it have on TikTok?
ByteDance bought popular karaoke app Musical.ly and relaunched it as TikTok in 2017. It is one of the fastest-growing apps in the US and has 150 monthly subscribers, more than half of whom are aged 18 to 34. In 2023, the platform had more than one billion monthly active users worldwide and revenue of $120 billion, including $16 billion in the United States.
The app’s growing influence has drawn the attention of spy agencies and U.S. lawmakers, who have expressed concern that TikTok could share user data with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a claim the company has denied. Some say the data could also be used by China Spreading misinformation that could harm the democratic process.
“For years, we have allowed the Chinese Communist Party to control one of the most popular apps in America. “That was dangerously short-sighted,” said Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “A new law requires the Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good step for America.”
In December 2022, the US Congress banned the app from being used on any government-approved devices or networks. Several other countries have followed suit and restricted the use of TikTok in government offices. India banned the app in 2020 when it hit 200 million subscribers as a result of border skirmishes.
The widely used app has also been accused of spreading pro-Palestinian content – a claim the company has denied. TikTok’s young users (ages 16 to 24) in the US, who make up 60 percent of all users, sympathize with Palestine, the company said last November.
TikTok executives have faced criticism at several congressional hearings. In March last year, the company’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew assured lawmakers that TikTok had taken measures to protect user data.
The company has also invested $1.5 billion to store TikTok in the US and Oracle, a US-based multinational, would provide the cloud and storage services for the project. It has also taken steps to separate its U.S. operations from its Chinese parent company.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. claims were not supported by evidence and the ban would undermine fair competition. Several Chinese technology firms have been blacklisted by the US amid an internet and technology war between Washington and Beijing.
Last week, Apple said Beijing had ordered it to remove Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China due to Chinese national security concerns.
If ByteDance refuses to divest the company, the app would lose access to app stores, web hosting and network providers.
TikTok will remain active in the USA until the nine-month period expires. The US President may grant an extension of the deadline for another 90 days if the company is deemed to comply with the conditions established by law.
What can TikTok do now?
While TikTok can operate in the US, the company’s executives and lawyers have to fight for legal reasons for now.
“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe that the facts and the law are clearly on our side and that we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to ensure the security of US data and protect our platform from outside influence and manipulation,” TikTok said in a statement on Wednesday.
TikTok will challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds and TikTok users are expected to take legal action again. A U.S. judge in Montana blocked a state ban on TikTok in November, citing free speech grounds. The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to free speech under the First Amendment.
The American Civil Liberties Union said a ban or requirement to divest TikTok would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms…If the United States bans a foreign platform now, other countries will too.” “Induce copycat measures.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, said he was concerned that the bill “provides broad powers that could be abused by a future administration to violate Americans’ First Amendment rights.”
In 2020, former US President Donald Trump attempted to pass his own TikTok ban into law, but he did something of an about-face by banning the popular social media app while campaigning for another term. On Monday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “Just so everyone knows, especially young people, crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok.”