On March 13, 2024, users of the popular social media platform, TikTok, discovered that the United States House of Representatives voted 362-65 to ban the app nationwide. The bill would disallow the use of the social media app within six months if the parent company refuses to sell the wholly-owned subsidiary to a company not based in China. On April 23, 2024, the Senate passed a legislative package that included the bill, which President Biden signed into law on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
TikTok is currently owned by ByteDance, a parent company based out of Beijing, China. The United States government has cited concern over China’s ability to access private data from the social media app’s users or influence them through algorithms.
Proponents of the bill have expressed concern about communist access to information from hundreds of millions of Americans and using it as an assault on American democracy, according to ABC News. They fear that due to a lack of regulation, TikTok could be a threat to the privacy of its users within the United States.