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UPDATE: US President Joe Biden has signed the bill that forces TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or fan a national ban across the US in 270 days. This means TikTok could be officially removed from US app stores by early 2025.
"This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court," TikTok said today.
Biden's remarks today focused largely on the foreign aid component of the legislation, but here's everything you need to know about the TikTok ban.
Original Story:
The US Senate has voted to pass a new bill that would force TikTok to sever its ties with ByteDance or face a ban in the United States. Seventy-nine senators voted to pass the measure and 18 voted against it late Tuesday.
The Senate Commerce Committee's chair may have been persuaded to approve this TikTok ban because it gives ByteDance more time to divest than the previous iteration, which may have not been legally acceptable, Business Insider reports.
If President Joe Biden signs the bill, which he has said he will, it will become law. TikTok will then have 270 days, or roughly nine months, to ditch its owners in China, accept the ban, or continue its efforts to try to overturn the law. TikTok would remain available in the US until that timer expires.
"I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow," Biden said in a statement Tuesday.
This TikTok ultimatum is part of a foreign aid package Congress had grappled with for months. Last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers presented an initial bill called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which Biden said he would sign into law. The House quickly passed the bill, but the Senate reportedly stalled it, making its fate unclear. This second bill, however, has moved more quickly since the TikTok part is a smaller component of the package's broader provisions—$95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, plus humanitarian aid for Gaza, CBS reports.
"The need is urgent," Biden said in a statement. "For Ukraine, facing unrelenting bombardment from Russia; for Israel, which just faced unprecedented attacks from Iran; for refugees and those impacted by conflicts and natural disasters around the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti; and for our partners seeking security and stability in the Indo-Pacific."
TikTok's ban has remained a controversial topic. Despite former President Donald Trump's prior efforts to ban TikTok in 2020, Trump has since come out against the idea of a ban mainly because he hates Facebook. Billionaire CEO Elon Musk, whose X/Twitter platform confirmed this week that it's building a video-centric "X TV" app, has also expressed opposition to the original TikTok ban bill, dubbing it "censorship."
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include news that Biden has signed the bill.