The United States Senate has voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that would ban TikTok, the popular video-sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The bill passed by a vote of 79-18 and now heads to President Biden’s desk, who has indicated he will sign it into law.
This is the second attempt by Congress this year to ban TikTok. The House voted last month to pass a bill explicitly targeting a ban on TikTok, though it saw no movement once it was sent to the Senate. Now both chambers of Congress have passed the bill, the legislation will be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he can either sign it into law or veto the bill. However, the outcome is predetermined, as Biden already signaled earlier this year that he plans to sign the TikTok legislation. Not to mention, President Biden published an official statement shortly after the bill passed in the Senate that he will sign it “as soon as it reaches [his] desk tomorrow.”
Once the bill is signed into law, ByteDance will have nine months to sell TikTok to another company or investment group. Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is among those interested in buying TikTok. However, it seems ByteDance is unwilling to cave into being forced to divest or face a ban on its app in the United States. Bloomberg previously reported that TikTok told its employees that if the bill becomes law, it plans to challenge the ban in court.
A TikTok ban in the United States has previously been challenged in the courts, as Montana passed state legislation that would have banned the app in its state entirely. However, that ban is being contested in court, preventing the ban from currently being in effect.
Over the last several years, the United States government has been adamant about banning TikTok, claiming that its ownership by the Chinese-based company ByteDance makes the app a threat to national security. Those arguing against the ban, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), argue that the ban is unconstitutional. The app has been banned from being installed on any Federal government-issued smartphones. At the state level, over 30 states, including Alabama, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, have bans on using TikTok on government devices. Several colleges and universities in the United States have also banned TikTok, such as Clemson University, which has made the app inaccessible to anyone who tries to connect to the campus internet to access the platform.
