The US Senate has passed a bill targeting TikTok, requiring divestment or potential ban, with President Biden expected to enact it.

TikTok risks a ban if it does not divest the short video app within the next nine months to a year. Late Tuesday, the US Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, does not divest the popular short video app within the next nine months to a year. Amid widespread concerns among US lawmakers regarding potential data access and surveillance by China through the app, the bill was approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday. US President Joe Biden has indicated his intention to sign it into law on Wednesday. Senator Marco Rubio, the leading Republican on the Intelligence Committee, remarked, \"For years, we've allowed the Chinese Communist Party to control one of the most popular apps in America, which was dangerously shortsighted. A new law will now require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a positive step for America.\" In response to the Senate's vote, the Chinese Foreign Ministry referred on Wednesday to comments made by the ministry in March when the House of Representatives passed a similar bill. The Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized the legislation, stating, \"Though the US has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the US's national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok.\" The four-year battle over TikTok, utilized by 170 million people in the United States, represents just one facet of the broader conflict over the internet and technology between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Apple disclosed that Beijing had mandated the removal of Meta Platforms' WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over concerns regarding Chinese national security. TikTok intends to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds, and TikTok users are expected to pursue legal action once again. In November, a US judge in Montana blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free speech principles. The American Civil Liberties Union expressed concerns over the potential banning or divestiture of TikTok, warning that such actions would establish a troubling precedent of excessive government control over social media platforms. They cautioned that if the United States were to ban a foreign-owned platform, it could prompt similar measures by other countries. TikTok, which asserts it has not shared and would not share US user data with the Chinese government, refrained from immediate comment but informed employees that it would swiftly seek legal recourse to block the legislation.TikTok conveyed to its staff in an email seen by Reuters, \"This is the beginning, not the end of this long process.\" The Senate voted decisively, with 79 in favor and 18 against the bill. It was appended to a measure allocating $95 billion in predominantly military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The TikTok divestment directive garnered swift approval after being introduced just weeks ago. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump faced legal challenges in his attempt to block TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent, in the United States. However, experts suggest that the new legislation will provide the Biden administration with a stronger legal basis to ban TikTok if ByteDance fails to divest the app. Should ByteDance fail to divest TikTok, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet's Google, and others would be prohibited from offering TikTok or providing web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications or TikTok's website. Furthermore, the bill would grant the White House additional tools to ban or compel the sale of other foreign-owned apps deemed to be security threats.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden expressed concerns that the bill \"provides broad authority that could be abused by a future administration to violate Americans’ First Amendment rights.\" Upon the bill's enactment, ByteDance will have 270 days to divest TikTok's US operations, with a possible three-month extension if progress is evident. Democratic Senator Ed Markey voiced skepticism about ByteDance's ability to divest by early 2025, highlighting the complexity and expense of such a transaction. He emphasized that the sale would require extensive due diligence over several months, if not years. \"We should be very clear about the likely outcome of this law. It's really just a TikTok ban,\" he remarked. \"Censorship is not who we are as a people. We should not downplay or deny this trade-off.\" The bill may also become a focal point in the November presidential campaign, with Republican presidential candidate Trump urging young voters to consider the possibility of a TikTok ban.

City: Washington