Senate passes bill designed to ban TikTok unless app is bought by US company

On Tuesday night, Senate approved a bill aimed at either prohibiting TikTok or compelling its sale, marking a significant rejection of the video-sharing platform’s Chinese ownership. This move comes after numerous unsuccessful efforts to address the purported national security concerns associated with the app over the years.

The Senate voted 79 to 18 in favor of the measure, which was included in a comprehensive package providing assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. This sends the proposal to President Biden for his signature, following the House’s approval on Saturday. President Biden has voiced support for the foreign aid package and indicated his intention to sign the TikTok bill, indicating that it is likely to become law in the near future.

Upon signature, the provision would grant TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, approximately nine months to divest the immensely popular app, failing which could result in a nationwide prohibition. The president retains the authority to extend this deadline by an additional 90 days.

TikTok plans to fight against the new rule in court. This could be a big and long fight where they’ll argue that the law goes against free speech for many people. Despite TikTok trying hard to stop the rule, like asking users to complain to their lawmakers and showing ads about how safe TikTok is, it hasn’t changed lawmakers’ minds.

Rumble has since offered to help buy and operate TikTok in the US.

“In the event that ByteDance divests its ownership in TikTok, Rumble is ready to join a consortium with other parties seeking to acquire and operate TikTok inside the United States. Specifically, we are ready to serve as a cloud technology partner,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski said in a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.