While TikTok is getting closer to being kicked out of the US after the Senate approved a bill that would ban the platform unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sold the company, the likelihood of legal action by ByteDance would delay a ban by several years, the BBC reports.
The video-sharing app has millions of users around the world, but faces growing questions over the security of users’ data and its links to the government in Beijing.
Lawmakers from both major US parties have pressed for a law that bans TikTok unless ByteDance agrees to sell the app to a non-Chinese company.
They fear the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data about TikTok’s 170 million US users. TikTok insists it would not provide foreign user data to the Chinese government.
The House of Representatives and Senate have now both passed legislation which, among other things, forces the platform’s parent company to divest, and President Joe Biden has vowed to sign the ban into law.
The BBC reports that while Donald Trump tried to ban the app when he was in the White House in 2020, he has criticised the new legislation, arguing that limiting TikTok would unfairly benefit Facebook.
The BBC points out that it would likely take several years before Americans were unable to access the app, as ByteDance sued − likely all the way to the Supreme Court − to block the forced sale.
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