US government inches closer to officially banning TikTok

The banning of TikTok has been talked about since the Trump administration but recently caught wind again last month when the House of Representatives passed a bill that would require TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to either sell the app or face a ban from regulators.

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The first bill that was passed in the House last month didn't attract much attention from the Senate, meaning the app wasn't forced to be sold. However, efforts to get rid of TikTok have increased again with another bill that has already been passed in the House. This new bill expands the timeframe ByteDance has to sell the app, increasing the window from six months to nine months, along with the addition of a presidential ability to grant a further 90-day extension.

The bill was passed in the House 360-58 and was included in a larger package that featured foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. TechCrunch reports that the inclusion of TikTok within this larger bill was a way for House Speaker Mike Johnson to "attract more conservative support". It's expected the Senate will vote on this bill within the next couple of weeks, with President Joe Biden saying that it has already earned his support and that he will sign it if it passes.

In the event that it passes, TikTok has said it will challenge the bill in court. Notably, the Biden administration has said the TikTok app poses threats to US national security by being a source of data collection on the American people for China. Furthermore, the Biden administration has expressed concerns the TikTok app can be used as a route to distribute Chinese and American propaganda.