The Senate passed a multi-faceted bill Tuesday evening that would effectively ban TikTok from the U.S. App Store once President Joe Biden signs it, as he has announced. The final vote was 79 for and 18 against.
The House of Representatives passed a series of bills over the weekend aimed at sending foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian funds for the Gaza Strip. Included in the foreign aid bills was language requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social media service to an American or face a ban.
The House passed a similar bill in March, pressuring ByteDance to divest in 180 days. The most recent version gives ByteDance 270 days to divest, a move that appears to have been enough to sway Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Sen. Maria Cantwell.
Cantwell did not support the previous TikTok bill, saying she wasn’t sure it could pass legal scrutiny. This is an issue that other senators have highlighted, given that the legislation specifically identifies ByteDance by name.
Biden has said for months that he would take up the legislation once it reaches his desk. During his final year in office, former President Donald Trump attempted to force ByteDance to sell to a U.S. company through an executive order, but a federal district court overturned the order.
The bill’s passage in the Senate comes after months of lobbying by TikTok — the app urged its users to contact their representatives and express their displeasure, and its CEO personally traveled to Washington, D.C. , in an attempt to stop it – as China itself would seem. Politico reported earlier in April that Chinese embassy officials met with members of Congress to express their displeasure with the legislation.
TikTok has vowed to challenge the bill in court once Biden signs it.
Passing the TikTok “ban” could hurt Biden’s re-election chances in November, given the app’s popularity among young people and the likelihood of a close final vote. Trump may have understood this too – earlier in the year he spoke out against banning TikTok despite his actions as president.
businessinsider
