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U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a bill forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to divest ownership of the app or see it banned in the next nine months, extendable by another three months if needed.
The bill was signed after the U.S. Senate voted largely in favour of it, along with foreign aid to strategic American allies.
Both Democratic and Republican politicians have shared fears of China’s Communist Party using TikTok through ByteDance in order to manipulate Americans, push propaganda, and carry out espionage.
Last year, several U.S. states began banning TikTok in government employees’ work devices, though sweeping bans on private usage were not successful in court.
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However, TikTok may not necessarily disappear from the U.S. next year as a company spokesperson confirmed that the company will be taking its fight to the court in order to stop the ban from taking place, reported The Verge.
Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video on the platform where he criticised the motion in strong terms and said that the new bill was a ban on American people and their voices.
TikTok reported 150 million users in the U.S. last year.
The company claimed that TikTok contributed $24 billion to the U.S. economy in a year, reported CBS on Wednesday.
TikTok has been criticised for its addictive algorithmic feed and for including adult or graphic content on children’s feeds. A few parents of children who died in a “blackout” choking challenge have alleged the app was responsible for causing significant harm.
In France and Spain, the company announced that it was removing a feature from its TikTok Lite app that would reward users for engaging with its videos. However, the EU will continue to investigate this incident.
