Congress just passed a potential ban on TikTok. Here’s what happened next

Congress just passed a potential ban on TikTok. Here’s what happened next

Congress finalized legislation on Tuesday that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok, raising a major threat to the company’s US operations.

The bill passed the Senate as part of a broad foreign aid package to support Israel and Ukraine. It was approved by the House on Saturday. It is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk. If he signs the bill, as he is expected to do, TikTok will be forced to find a new owner within months or be banned from the United States entirely.

Here’s what we know and how it could affect you.

What does TikTok law do?
The bill passed this week is an updated version of one passed by House lawmakers in March. It gave TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, 270 days to sell TikTok. Failure to do so will lead to significant consequences: TikTok will be banned from US app stores and from the “internet hosting services” that support it.

That will effectively block new downloads of the app and interaction with its content. If signed this week, the deadline for the sale would fall in January 2025. Under the law, however, Biden can extend the deadline another 90 days if he determines there is progress toward a sale, giving TikTok potentially up to a year before facing a ban.

How did this end up in the foreign aid bill?
The previous TikTok bill was passed by the House, but it stalled in the Senate. In a procedural move, House Republicans this month attached a revised TikTok bill to the foreign aid package in hopes of forcing the Senate to vote on the TikTok legislation. Combining the bill with foreign aid — a US priority — speeds up the TikTok bill and makes it more likely to pass.

Will Biden sign the TikTok bill?
Since the bill is part of a foreign aid package that Biden has vocally supported, he is expected to sign it quickly. Biden is also on record as supporting previous TikTok legislation, so there’s no reason to think he would oppose its latest version that gives TikTok a longer runway and additional White House input in the forced sale.

What does this mean for my app usage?
If and when Biden signs the bill into law, it will begin a 270-day period for TikTok to find a buyer. If it can’t be separated from ByteDance, then TikTok users could hypothetically be cut off by January. But that’s still a big “if.” So for now, TikTok fans can continue to use the app as before, though they may start to see more creators — or the company itself — speak out on the app to oppose the law.

What are the TikTok options?
TikTok has promised to take the US government to court if Biden signs the bill. In a memo on Saturday, a top TikTok executive wrote to employees that this would be “the beginning, not the end” of a long process to challenge what the company called unconstitutional legislation that censors Americans’ free speech rights and that would harm small businesses that depend on it. on the application. In March, TikTok CEO Shou Chew vowed to keep fighting, “including (by) exercising our legal rights.”

Does TikTok have a case?
First Amendment experts say bills that have the ultimate effect of censoring TikTok users could be struck down by the courts.

“Longstanding Supreme Court precedent protects Americans’ First Amendment rights to access information, ideas and media from abroad,” said Nadine Farid Johnson, policy director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “By banning TikTok, the bill would violate this right, and without real compensation. China and other foreign adversaries can still buy sensitive American data from data brokers on the open market.”

A court challenge could result in the move being temporarily blocked while the litigation is ongoing, possibly for several years. But if the court refuses to grant a temporary injunction, TikTok may have to scramble to comply with the law.

So what if TikTok is sold to someone else?
The problem is that TikTok’s parent is subject to Chinese law, and the Chinese government is on record opposed to the sale.

In recent years, China has implemented export controls that regulate algorithms, a policy that appears to cover the highly successful algorithm that powers TikTok’s recommendation engine.

If the Chinese government doesn’t want to let ByteDance release TikTok’s algorithm, the thinking goes, it can block sales outright. Alternatively, it might allow TikTok to be sold but without the profitable algorithm that is the basis for its popularity.

Can TikTok still be successful without its algorithm? That will be a tough question facing the company in the event of a forced sale. Without the secret sauce that has propelled the app to 170 million US users, the app could be as good as dead.