Biden Signs Bill Package That Includes a Potential TikTok Ban. Here's What Happens Next ¹:
- *What does the bill do?*: The bill that Biden signed gives TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, 270 days to sell TikTok. Failure to do so would lead to significant consequences: TikTok would be prohibited from U.S. app stores and from “internet hosting services” that support it.
- *What does this mean for TikTok users?*: If TikTok can’t separate from ByteDance by the deadline, then U.S. TikTok users could hypothetically be cut off by mid-January.
- *What are TikTok’s options?*: TikTok promised to take the U.S. government to court if Biden signed the bill. In a memo on Saturday, a top TikTok executive wrote to employees that this would be the “beginning, not the end” of a long process to challenge what the company calls unconstitutional legislation that censors Americans’ speech rights and that would harm small businesses that depend on the app.
- *Does TikTok have a case?*: First Amendment experts say a bill that has the ultimate effect of censoring TikTok users could be shot down by the courts.