Chinese company ByteDance has one year to sell its stake in the social media app TikTok to an American owner or it will be banned in the U.S., per a law that President Biden signed into law on Wednesday. However, the inevitable legal battle means it will likely be years before an official ban is enacted.
Since ByteDance purchased the app that would eventually become TikTok in 2017, American national security officials has expressed concern that the Chinese government could exert pressure on the company and give up the data of U.S. users. However, despite those worries, 170 million Americans—about half the country’s population—uses the app. Under Chinese national intelligence laws, ByteDance would be obligated to provide the data if asked, but the company said it has never received an order.
If ByteDance can’t or won’t find a buyer, it will become illegal for web hosting services to support the app and force Apple and Google to remove it from their app stores, which will leave TikTok unusable—a move that civil liberties groups and Constitutional scholars have condemned. However, TikTok said it plans to head to court over the matter, claiming that the ban is a violation of free speech. This legal challenge could delay the ban by at least several months.
