Biden Signed A Bill That Could Ban TikTok Nationwide. What's Next?

TikTok is feeling the heat after President Joe Biden on Wednesday morning signed a package of foreign aid bills which included a provision to force ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell its stake in the platform or risk getting banned in the U.S.

The platform, which has long been scrutinized by U.S. officials over privacy and national security concerns stemming from its ties to China, is one of the most popular social media apps in the U.S. with a user base of about 170 million Americans.

Following Biden’s signature on the bill, TikTok said it would mount a legal challenge to block it from taking hold. Previous efforts to ban the app were blocked by the courts, but the outcome of this upcoming legal battle remains unclear, given the bill is the first of its kind in many ways.

“It’s so unprecedented for the Congress for the United States to ban a communications app that is this popular amongst so many people,” Caitlin Chin-Rothmann, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told HuffPost.

“It is pretty remarkable that this is one of the first major pieces of technology regulation that Congress has passed in years, and it’s related to one company, TikTok,” Chin-Rothmann added.

What Does The Legislation Involve?

The provision forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok or risk a nationwide ban was presented as part of a bill addressing several Republican foreign policy priorities. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) attached that bill to a wider $95 billion package authorizing additional U.S. support for U.S. allies abroad, including Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Under the legislation, ByteDance would have up to 12 months to divest of the platform before TikTok would officially be banned