The future of TikTok hangs in the balance as Congress prepares to vote on a foreign aid bill that includes language threatening to force ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban in the U.S.
The House has already passed the bill by a wide bipartisan margin, with President Joe Biden indicating he would sign it into law immediately. The Senate, which has been sitting on the original bill for a month, is now forced to consider the legislation that could impact 170 million Americans.
Critics of TikTok argue that the Chinese-owned app poses a national security threat and could potentially allow the Chinese government access to American data. However, TikTok has pushed back against these claims, stating that user data is secure and deriding the legislation as an outright ban.
Despite intense lobbying efforts by TikTok, most lawmakers in both the House and Senate support the bill. The new version of the legislation included in the foreign aid package would give ByteDance more time to sell the app, extending the timeline from six months to nine months.
The fate of TikTok now rests in the hands of Congress, as the bill is set to be bundled with other controversial foreign aid bills. With political implications and potential legal challenges ahead, the future of TikTok remains uncertain as lawmakers prepare to make a decision that could impact millions of users and the U.S. economy.
