WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that are expected to face legal challenges and disrupt the lives of content creators who rely on the short-form video app for income.
The TikTok legislation was included in a larger $95 billion package that provided foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and was passed 79-18. It now goes to President Joe Biden, who said in a statement immediately after passage that he would sign it on Wednesday.
House Republicans’ decision last week to attach the TikTok bill to the high-priority package helped expedite its passage in Congress. It came after negotiations with the Senate, where an earlier bill version had stalled. That version had given TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, six months to divest its stakes in the platform. But it drew skepticism from some key lawmakers concerned it was too short of a window for a complex deal worth tens of billions of dollars.
No, TikTok will not suddenly disappear from your phone, and you will not go to jail if you continue using it after it is banned. So what does this mean for you, a TikTok user, or perhaps the parent of a TikTok user?
It would be at least a year before a ban goes into effect — but with likely court challenges, this could stretch even years. TikTok has seen some success with court challenges in the past, but it has never sought to prevent federal legislation from going into effect.
WHAT IF I ALREADY DOWNLOADED IT?
TikTok, which more than 170 million Americans use, most likely won’t disappear from your phone even if an eventual ban does take effect. However, it would disappear from Apple and Google’s app stores, which means users won’t be able to download it. This would also mean that TikTok wouldn’t be able to send updates, security patches, and bug fixes, and over time, the app would likely become unusable — not to mention a security risk.
BUT SURELY THERE ARE WORKAROUNDS?
Teenagers are known for circumventing parental controls and social media bans, so dodging the U.S. government’s ban is certainly not out of the realm of possibilities. Users could try to mask their location using a VPN or virtual private network, use alternative app stores, or even install a foreign SIM card into their phone. More likely, users will migrate to another platform — such as Instagram, which has a TikTok-like feature called Reels, or YouTube, which has incorporated vertical short videos in its feed to try to compete with TikTok. Often, such videos are taken directly from TikTok itself. Popular creators are likely to be found on other platforms, so you’ll probably be able to see the same stuff.
Information: Associated Press
