Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the social media app’s US operations or face a ban, after the Senate passed the legislation.
The law, part of a foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sets the clock ticking on a potential ban for a platform that is hugely popular in the US.
Here is a guide to the TikTok legislation and what may happen next.
How does the legislation pave the way for a sale or ban?
The bill gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, 270 days to sell the app’s US operations. If ByteDance appears close to completing a deal as the deadline looms, the president can authorise a 90-day extension.
The deadline arrives at about the time the next president is inaugurated, on 20 January, which means Donald Trump, if he wins the election, could decide whether the sale process is extended.
If ByteDance fails to carry out a sale, then it will face a nationwide ban, by the blocking of app stores and web hosts from distributing TikTok.
Why is the US threatening to ban TikTok?
US lawmakers and authorities are concerned that data from TikTok’s 170 million US users could be accessed by the Chinese state under national security laws.
Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, the US domestic intelligence and security agency, has said that ByteDance is “controlled by the Chinese government” and has warned that Beijing authorities can influence people by manipulating the algorithm that curates what people view on TikTok, as well as allowing the government to collect user data for “traditional espionage operations”.
TikTok denies that the Chinese government has attempted to access US user data and says it would reject any such request. In an appearance before Congress last year, TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, said: “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.”
Will TikTok appeal against the law?
TikTok has already declared that it will fight the bill in the courts as soon as it is signed, labelling it a breach of the US constitution’s first amendment, which protects free speech.
“At the stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge,” wrote TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, in a memo to staff at the weekend.
He added: “We’ll continue to fight, as this legislation is a clear violation of the first amendment rights of the 170 million Americans on TikTok.”
Chew said in a video posted soon after Biden signed the bill on Wednesday that “we aren’t going anywhere”, adding that “the facts and the constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again”.
The first amendment stance has already worked in TikTok’s favour after a judge in Montana, which had banned the app, blocked the move because it violated users’ free speech rights.