President Joe Biden has signed the bill banning TikTok in the United States. A day after the Senate approved legislation to ban TikTok in the United States, President Joe Biden officially signed the bill, potentially permanently banning TikTok in the country. Following the president’s signature, the bill has become law. President Joe Biden signed a package of foreign aid bills, including the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”.
With the bill now signed, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has to take action to prevent the app from being banned in the United States. This is not the first attempt by the US government to ban TikTok in the country.
ByteDance now has two options to safeguard the app from being banned in the United States. The first option is to divest TikTok to an American firm within the next nine months. The timeframe for divestment may be extended to one year if the president observes progress in the company’s divestment efforts. The second option is a straightforward ban on the short-form video platform owned by ButeDance in the United States.
In response, ByteDance has immediately decided to challenge the bill in court, asserting its opposition to the ban as unconstitutional. The company stated on its official X formerly Twitter handle and called this ban unconstitutional.
Our Statement on the Enactment of the TikTok Ban:
“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep the U.S.…”
TikTok has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing social media platform, particularly gaining momentum during the Covid-19 lockdowns a few years ago. Inspired by TikTok’s success, major players such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat have integrated short-form videos into their platforms to attract more users. Despite fierce competition, ByteDance’s platform continues to dominate the short-form video category, boasting the highest number of users.
The app has become the world’s most downloaded app, surpassing Meta-owned social media apps and YouTube. It boasts over 1 billion monthly active users globally, with 170 million users in the United States alone. TikTok also became the first app to reach $10 billion in in-app spending worldwide.
If ByteDance fails to divest the platform within the next nine months, the situation could worsen for both the app and the company. This story is still developing, and we anticipate further updates from the US government and TikTok. Stay tuned for more updates on this topic.
