On Tuesday, the US Senate passed a law that demands the widely liked social media app TikTok to be separated from its Chinese owner ByteDance or be excluded from the American market.
This action was part of a $95 billion foreign aid package, including military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which has now been approved by Congress and is going to President Joe Biden’s desk.
US and other Western officials have expressed worry about TikTok's popularity among young people, claiming it enables Beijing to gather data and spy on users. It has 170 million users in the US alone.
These critics also claim that TikTok is obedient to Beijing and a way to spread propaganda. China and the company strongly reject these allegations.
The legislation, which could lead to the rare move of barring a company from operating in the US market, was passed by the Senate with a 79-18 vote three days after it was approved by the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support.
Biden has stated he will sign the legislation.
He repeated his concerns about TikTok in a rare phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month.
Following the House vote on Saturday, TikTok complained, saying it was “unfortunate” that lawmakers aimed to “push through a ban bill that would infringe on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, harm seven million businesses, and close a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy annually.”
Under the law, ByteDance would need to sell the app within a year or be removed from Apple and Google’s app stores in the US.
Steven Mnuchin, who was the US treasury secretary under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, has expressed interest in acquiring TikTok and has formed a group of investors.
For years, TikTok has been under scrutiny from American authorities, who say the platform allows Beijing to spy on users in the US. However, a ban could lead to legal action.
The bill passed by Congress empowers the US president to label other apps as a threat to national security if they are controlled by a country considered hostile.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, spoke out on Friday against banning TikTok, saying “doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression.”
