The House of Representatives has passed a bill that will require TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States. The Senate approved it less than a week later. Joe Biden signed it a day after the Senate voted yes.
TikTok is facing its biggest existential threat yet in the US. The app was banned in Montana last year, but courts ruled the ban unconstitutional and never went into effect.
Here’s what you need to know about the bill, how likely TikTok is to be banned and what that means for the platform’s 170 million U.S. users.
Related: House of Representatives votes to force TikTok owner ByteDance to divest or face US ban
Is the US really trying to ban TikTok, and why?
The bill passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday is the latest salvo in an ongoing political battle over the platform, which exploded in popularity after its rise in 2017. In 2018, it quickly surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube in downloads, reporting a 45% increase in monthly active users between July 2020 and July 2022.
The platform’s rapid rise alarmed some lawmakers, who believe TikTok’s Chinese parent company could collect sensitive user data and censor content that violates the Chinese government.
TikTok has repeatedly stated that it has not and would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, but lawmakers’ concerns were exacerbated by news research showing that China-based ByteDance employees had accessed non-public data about American TikTok users.
TikTok has argued that US user data is not kept in China, but in Singapore and the US, where it is routed through the cloud infrastructure of Oracle, a US company. In 2023, TikTok opened a data center in Ireland where it processes data from EU citizens.
These measures have not been enough for many US lawmakers, and in March 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was called before Congress where he was intensively questioned for more than five hours about these and other practices. Lawmakers asked Chew about his own nationality and accused him of allegiance to China. He’s actually Singaporean.
Over the past year, there have been several attempts in Congress to provide oversight of TikTok and the way it handles U.S. user data, culminating in the bill passed on Wednesday.
Is this bill really a TikTok ban?
Under the new bill, ByteDance would have 165 days to divest TikTok, meaning it would have to sell the social media platform to a company not based in China. If this were not the case, app stores including the Apple App Store and Google Play would be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.
Authors of the bill have argued that it does not constitute a ban because it gives ByteDance the ability to sell TikTok and avoid being blocked in the US.
“TikTok could live on and people could do whatever they want on it, provided there is that separation,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the House China Committee. “It’s not a ban – think of this as surgery designed to remove the tumor and save the patient in the process.”
TikTok has argued otherwise, saying it is not clear whether China would approve a sale or even be able to complete a sale within six months.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban on TikTok in the United States,” the company said after the committee vote. “The government is trying to deprive 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free speech. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
How did we get here?
TikTok has faced a number of bans and attempts in recent years, starting with an executive order from Donald Trump in 2020 that was ultimately blocked by courts on First Amendment grounds. Trump has since reversed his position and is now against a ban on TikTok. Joe Biden, on the other hand, has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Montana tried to impose a statewide ban on the app in 2023, but the law was struck down by a federal judge due to First Amendment violations. The app was banned on government-issued phones in the US in 2022, and as of 2023, at least 34 states have also banned TikTok from government devices. At least 50 universities in the US have banned TikTok from campus Wi-Fi and university-owned computers.
The Treasury Department-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) demanded in March 2023 that ByteDance sell its TikTok shares or face the possibility of the app being banned, Reuters reported, but no action has been taken.
TikTok was banned in India in 2020 after a wave of dangerous ‘challenges’ led to the deaths of some users. The ban had a marked effect on competition in India, giving a significant market to YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram Reels, direct competitors to TikTok. The app is not available in China itself, where Douyin, a separate app from parent company ByteDance with firmer moderation, is widely used.
How would a ban on TikTok be enforced?
Due to the decentralized nature of the internet, enforcing a ban would be complex. The bill passed by the House would punish app stores daily for making TikTok available for download, but it would be difficult for users who already have the app on their phones to stop individual use.
Internet service providers could also be forced to block IP addresses associated with TikTok, but such practices can easily be circumvented in computer browsers by using a VPN or a virtual private network, which redirects computer connections to other locations.
To completely restrict access to TikTok, the U.S. government would have to adopt methods used by countries like Iran and China, which structure their internet in ways that make content restrictions easier to enforce.
Who supports the possible TikTok ban?
While Trump — who started the war on TikTok in 2020 — has reversed his position on the potential ban, most Republican lawmakers have expressed support. The Biden administration has also supported the bill, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying the administration “wants to see this bill passed so it ends up on the president’s desk.” Biden’s campaign joined TikTok last month.
Despite Trump’s opposition to the bill, many Republicans are continuing efforts to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American company.
“Well, he’s wrong. And besides, he had his own executive orders and his own actions that he was carrying out, and now … all of a sudden he’s reversed that,” said Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and member of the far-right Freedom Caucus. “I mean, it’s not the first or the last time I’ve disagreed with the former president. The TikTok problem is quite simple.”
Who is against the TikTok bill?
TikTok has strongly opposed the legislation and urged the Senate not to pass it. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” said TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek after Wednesday’s vote.
Within the House, 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against the bill, including Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who cited her experiences being banned from social media. House Democrats, including Maxwell Frost of Florida and Delia Ramirez of Illinois, joined TikTok creators outside the Capitol after the vote to voice their opposition to the bill.
Some Senate Democrats have already publicly opposed the bill, citing free speech concerns, and have proposed measures that would address concerns about foreign influence on social media without specifically targeting TikTok. “We need restrictions on social media, but we also need to apply those restrictions across the board,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a neutral statement on next steps in the Senate, saying he will “review the legislation as it comes out of the House.”
Free speech and civil rights groups have strongly opposed a ban, saying such legislation could have a profound impact on the internet as a whole. They have argued that TikTok’s data practices, while problematic, are not substantially different from those of US-based tech companies.
“TikTok isn’t perfect, but banning it is the wrong solution,” said Jenna Ruddock, a policy advisor at the media advocacy group Free Press. “Like all popular platforms, including Meta and Google, TikTok collects too much data about its users. But unilaterally dismantling the space for free expression limits people’s access to information and closes off opportunities for creators to build community.”
What happens now with TikTok?
The bill still faces an uphill battle to become law. While Biden has confirmed he would sign it, it has yet to come to a vote in the Senate. It’s unclear when that vote would take place, but TikTok will likely increase its lobbying efforts on the Hill as it moves forward, with CEO Chew heading to Congress to speak with senators on Wednesday.
Even if the bill were to pass, it would likely face similar free speech challenges that have prevented similar legislation — such as Trump’s 2020 and Montana’s 2023 ban — from moving forward.
