Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused President Joe Biden of pushing for a ban on TikTok and warned of potential consequences for younger voters. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, nine months to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban. If the bill passes the Senate, Biden has indicated he will sign it into law.
TikTok has argued that a ban would violate First Amendment rights, and the White House has stated it prefers to ensure American ownership of the app to protect sensitive data. Trump has suggested that a TikTok ban would benefit Facebook, whose parent company Meta he has criticized.
Under the proposed legislation, app stores operated by Apple, Google, and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications once the divestment deadline had passed. In February, Biden’s reelection campaign joined TikTok, while Trump’s campaign has not.
