Overwhelmingly, the US Senate has approved a bill that would outlaw TikTok unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, pulls out of the video-sharing app within nine months due to worries that the company could endanger national security.
The bill was passed by a vote of 79–18, however TikTok has declared it unconstitutional and disputed that the Chinese government could access user data. The measure containing the law was meant to give Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan a $95 billion emergency relief package.
It will be signed into law on Wednesday, according to President Joe Biden.
What is the current status of the TikTok ban, and what are the next steps?
In 2017, Bytedance relaunched Musical.ly, the well-known karaoke software, as TikTok. With 150 million monthly users, it is among the US apps with the greatest growth rates. The network claimed to have over one billion active monthly users worldwide in 2023, bringing in $120 billion in revenue, of which $16 billion originated in the US.
Due to TikTok’s increasing popularity, US politicians and spy agencies have raised concern that the app may share user data with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok has refuted these claims.
The widely used software has also been accused of promoting content that supports Palestine, a charge that the developer has refuted. According to a November statement from the firm, sixty percent of TikTok’s users in the US are young people (ages 16 to 24) who have sympathy for Palestine.
Executives from TikTok have faced intense questioning from lawmakers on several occasions. Shou Zi Chew, the company’s CEO, gave lawmakers assurances in March of last year that TikTok had taken precautions to protect user data.
