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The U.S. House Has Approved A Bill That Would Force ByteDance To Sell TikTok Or Risk A Ban.

A bipartisan bill aimed at banning TikTok in the United States has passed both chambers of Congress and has been signed into law by President Joe Biden. The issue of a TikTok ban is expected to become a focal point in the 2024 presidential election.

TikTok has faced scrutiny in the U.S. for several years due to concerns about data access laws. In response, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on March 13, 2024, requiring the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to sell the social media app within six months or face a ban from U.S. stores and websites. This ban would entail removing TikTok from app stores operated by Apple and Google and prohibiting service providers from making it available on browsers in the United States.

The bill, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, passing a vote of 325-65. Although the U.S. Senate did not vote on the bill as a standalone measure, it was included in a foreign aid package (H.R. 815) for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. This combined bill also garnered bipartisan support in the House, passing with a vote of 360-58, and was subsequently approved by the Senate in a vote of 79-18.

President Biden signed the National Security Act, 2024 into law on April 24, 2024, which includes the provisions regarding TikTok. Under this law, ByteDance has nine months to divest itself of TikTok and find new ownership for the platform. The president can extend this deadline by an additional 90 days if necessary. TikTok has announced its intention to challenge the law in court, asserting that it is unconstitutional.

Former President Donald Trump, who previously advocated for a TikTok ban, now opposes such measures as he runs against Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

TikTok has launched a $2.1 million advertising campaign in response to the congressional actions, highlighting how the app has benefited U.S. users and businesses. The company plans to challenge the ban in court while ensuring that users in the U.S. can continue accessing the platform.

TikTok claims that 170 million Americans use the app, with nearly 5 million businesses utilizing it to start and grow their companies. This is not the first time that the U.S. government has threatened to ban TikTok, as similar efforts were made during the Trump administration in 2020 and by the Biden administration in February 2023.

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