Though don’t expect the app to disappear anytime soon, the House passed legislation on Saturday that would prohibit TikTok from being used in the United States if the owner of the well-known social media platform, located in China, doesn’t sell its interest within a year.
The prohibition was expedited after a previous version had stalled in the Senate by House Republicans’ determination to include TikTok as part of a bigger foreign assistance package. This was a priority for President Joe Biden with strong legislative support for Ukraine and Israel. Republicans and Democrats alike expressed worries about the national security of the app’s owner, the Chinese technology company ByteDance Ltd., and a stand-alone measure with a six-month selling deadline passed the House in March with a resounding bipartisan majority.
However, even if the bill passes into law, the business would still have a year to find a buyer and would probably try to legally oppose the measure, claiming it would violate the First Amendment rights of the app’s millions of users. Legal challenges might prevent the bill from taking effect or drastically extend the timetable that Congress laid forth.
