President Joe Biden is on the verge of banning TikTok in the US following the Senate’s approval of a new law that mandates the app’s Chinese owner, Bytedance, to sell it or face blocking. The bill was passed decisively, with a Senate vote of 79 to 18, and it now awaits the President’s signature, which he has indicated he will provide.
The legislation requires Bytedance to divest from the widely popular music video app or risk having it removed from app stores like Apple’s and Google’s, along with other web services.
This bill, which easily passed in Congress with a vote of 360 to 58, comes after persistent demands from critics of China within the US, who argue that TikTok poses a national security risk and threatens the privacy of American data.
Former President Donald Trump tried to ban the app in 2020, but his efforts were stalled in the courts until he lost the presidential election.
While President Biden initially moved away from his predecessor’s hardline stance against TikTok, pressure from US lawmakers in both the House and the Senate led to a united effort to advance the current legislation.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, commenting on the passage, criticized the Chinese ownership of TikTok as “dangerously shortsighted” given the escalating technological tensions with China. He lauded the bill’s passage, saying, “This is a good move for America.”
TikTok has consistently rejected claims that it represents a national security risk and has vowed to challenge the new law in court. The video-sharing platform has criticized U.S. lawmakers, arguing that banning the widely-used app, which has 170 million American users, infringes on the right to free speech.
