US President Joe Biden has signed a bill banning the Chinese video sharing app TikTok in the country unless the app’s parent company, ByteDance, sells it to any company in US with a year. The bill is now a law.
The bill, which is supported by the majority of Democratic and Republican leaders, gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok, with the possibility of a three-month extension if the sale goes well.
It also bans ByteDance from controlling TikTok's fundamental technology, which feeds users video content depending on their preferences, making the platform popular among the younger population.
The law’s bill that was passed with overwhelming support in the US Senate, 360 to 58, is part of a $95 billion legislative package, also includes security aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
The development is expected to result in a legal dispute between the US and TikTok, which claims that the law breaches the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress should not make any law regarding any establishment of religion or a law that prohibits free exercise, freedom of speech, etc.
TikTok has challenged the potential ban in a statement posted on X, “This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court...This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
But why is US planning to ban TikTok?
The U.S. officials and the government believe that TikTok can be used to influence the nation's youth and app users and hence, also the U.S. 20204 election, as the app's core management lies with the Chinese government.
Many lawmakers are also of the belief that TikTok poses a national security risk as there is a possibility that China may compel the app owners to sell the data of 170 million U.S. users to the government.
The U.S. is not the first nation to move to ban TikTik. In 2020, India had also banned TikTok along with several other Chinese apps after clashes in the Galwan Valley with the Chinese military.