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TikTok is moving closer to being kicked out of the US after the Senate approved a bill that would ban the platform unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the company.
The video sharing app has millions of users around the world, but questions are growing over the security of users’ data and its links to the government in Beijing.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have now passed legislation that, among other things, forces the platform’s parent company to divest.
President Joe Biden has vowed to sign the ban into law.
Who wants to ban TikTok in America and why?
Lawmakers from both major US parties have pushed for a law that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance agrees to sell the app to a non-Chinese company.
They fear that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over the data of TikTok’s 170 million US users. TikTok says it will not provide foreign user data to the Chinese government.
On April 21, House lawmakers approved a $95bn (£76bn) foreign aid bill with funds for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, also clearing the way for the forced sale of TikTok.
On April 23, the legislation passed the Senate, and will now be sent to Mr. Biden to be signed into law.
This is not the first time that US authorities have attacked TikTok.
When former US President Donald Trump was in the White House in 2020, he tried to ban this app.
But Mr Trump – who has now been confirmed as the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election – has criticized the new law, arguing that limiting TikTok would give Facebook an unfair advantage.
When can TikTok be banned?
Even after Mr Biden signs the bill, the ban will not take effect immediately.
In fact, it will be years before Americans are unable to access the app, as ByteDance has filed a lawsuit to stop the forced sale – possibly all the way to the Supreme Court.
Additionally, the law gives ByteDance an additional nine months to sell TikTok to a US buyer, including an additional three-month grace period, before any restrictions take effect.
That means the deadline for the sale is likely to come sometime in 2025, after the winner of the 2024 presidential election takes office. If Mr Trump wins, he may seek to block the ban from being implemented.
How will the ban on TikTok work?
The most direct way for the US to ban TikTok would be to remove it from app stores, such as those operated by Apple and Google for iOS and Android devices.
Most people download apps to their smartphones and tablets from the App Store, so the ban will prevent new users from getting TikTok.
This means that people who already have the app will no longer be able to receive future updates designed to improve security or fix bugs.
The US bill prevents applications controlled by anti-US countries from being updated and maintained in the US.
It gives the President sweeping powers to limit apps with ties to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
What has TikTok said it will do about the law?
TikTok is highly critical of this law and calls it an insult to the American right to freedom of expression.
Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew warned that the bill would “give more power to a handful of other social media companies”, and put thousands of American jobs at risk.
ByteDance would need approval from Chinese authorities to sell TikTok, but Beijing has vowed to oppose such a move.
How have TikTok users in the US responded?
Some American creators and users have also criticized the proposed ban.
Tiffany Yu, a young disability advocate from Los Angeles, told the BBC at a protest outside the White House that the platform is important to her work.
TikTok asked its 170 million US users to contact their political representatives and ask them not to support the bill.
But a flood of “confused” calls from TikTok users to congressmen and senators may have backfired.
Many politicians say the campaign has worsened their concerns about the app, and strengthened their resolve to pass the law.
Is TikTok banned in other countries?
If the bill becomes US law, it could inspire similar steps elsewhere.
TikTok is already banned in India, which was one of the app’s biggest markets before it was outlawed in June 2020.
It is also blocked in Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia.
The UK government and Parliament have banned TikTok from employees’ work devices in 2023, as has the European Commission.
The BBC also advised employees to delete TikTok from corporate phones due to security fears.
How does TikTok work and how much user data does it collect?
At the heart of TikTok is its algorithm.
This is a set of instructions within the app that determine what content will be presented to users, based on data about how they engaged with previous content.
Users are offered three main feeds on their app – Following, Friends and For You.
The Following and Friends feeds present users with content from people they’ve chosen to follow and who follow them back, but the For You feed is automatically generated by the app.
This curated feed has become the main destination for users looking for new content, and creators hungry for millions of views can increase their numbers when TikTok videos go viral.
Critics say the app collects more data than other social media platforms to power its highly personalized systems.
This may include information about users’ location, devices, the content they engage with, and the keystroke rhythms they exhibit while typing.
But popular social media apps like Facebook and Instagram collect similar data from users.
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