The United States Senate has approved by 79 votes in favor and 18 against the new bill that would require the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the country. This measure is part of a package of foreign aid previously approved by the House of Representatives.
According to The Verge, the bill is now in the hands of US President Joe Biden, who has pledged to sign the legislation after passing through both chambers of the US Congress. If it becomes law, ByteDance would have up to one year to complete the sale of TikTok, at the risk of the app being completely banned in the United States.
The bill gives ByteDance a nine-month deadline to sell TikTok, with the possibility of a three-month extension at the discretion of the president. However, legal challenges could delay the implementation of the law. The political maneuver in the House of Representatives forced the Senate to address the TikTok issue earlier than planned, and the inclusion of the bill in the foreign aid package expanded its support.
Legislators and intelligence services have expressed concern about Chinese ownership of TikTok, fearing that the data of American users is at risk due to Chinese national security laws that could compel companies to hand over internal information.
Although TikTok is based in Singapore and claims not to store US data in China, the mere possibility that the Chinese government can see the messages of US users has led to the creation of up to two different bills: one that was paralyzed in the Senate and another that has been approved in a few days.
Maria Cantwell, President of the Senate Commerce Committee, emphasized that the legislation does not seek to punish individual companies, but rather to prevent foreign espionage operations that could harm vulnerable Americans, military personnel, and government officials.
