The US Senate has passed a bill intended to force ByteDance to sell its wildly popular video app TikTok. If the app is not divested from the parent firm, it will face a ban in its top market. 79 senators voted in favor while 18 senators voted against the bill, which was bundled together with a foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
What is left now is for U.S. President Joe Biden to sign it. In case the app is banned, it will no longer be available for download on popular app storefronts such as the Google Play Store and the Apple app store. While TikTok is likely to contest this legally and a true ban could be years away, ByteDance has been given one year to sell the app that had 150 million users in the U.S. last year.
TikTok is crucial for many content creators and smaller businesses. Its algorithmic feed is popular with users for its high accuracy levels, but has been accused of causing addiction in small children and lacking safeguards to protect them from adult or graphic content.
As U.S. lawmakers and politicians debated banning TikTok, several of them pointed to India’s own ban on TikTok. The app has been blocked for India-based users since 2020, in the aftermath of violent clashes between Chinese and Indian soldiers in contested regions. The U.S. administration is also worried that China’s regime will attempt to sabotage Americans or spread propaganda through the app.
TikTok’s annual revenue rose from $9.6 billion in 2022 to $16.1 billion in 2023, according to Business of Apps.
