Washington, DC: In a significant development, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, signed a bill into law that could potentially lead to the ban of the popular social media app TikTok if its China-based parent company, ByteDance, fails to divest the app within a year. The bill, provides ByteDance with a nine-month window to sell its stake in TikTok.
The bill was part of a broader package that included military aid for countries like Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and other US partners. Biden expressed the challenges in getting the bill to his desk, stating, “The path to my desk was a difficult path. It should have been easier and it should’ve gotten there sooner. But in the end we did what America always does, we rose to the moment.”
The TikTok ban bill received overwhelming support in the Senate, passing with a 79-18 vote. Biden had signaled his intention to sign the bill into law after it was passed by the US House of Representatives over the weekend.
Under the new law, ByteDance is required to sell TikTok within nine months, with the possibility of a one-year extension if Biden invokes a 90-day extension period. Failure to comply with the divestment requirements could result in the app being banned in the US. TikTok, a short-video sharing app, boasts over 170 million users in the United States.
