Given that the House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a ban on TikTok leaving the US in a plenary session, one might feel that the app is now a waste of time However, there are several hurdles to overcome before the law is passed, and there is a possibility that it may fail altogether Here is what happens next as the US government confronts TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance

The next step in a possible ban is a vote in the Senate The House passed the bill convincingly, 352 to 65, but the 100 members of the Democrat-controlled Senate are difficult to predict, and CBS reports that Senators seem less than enthusiastic about the bill

On top of that, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has not revealed a timetable, leading some to question whether a vote on the floor will actually take place

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has stated that he will sign the bill if the Senate passes it

Not immediately If the law passes, Byte Dance will be given six months to find a buyer for the app

If it succeeds and the government is satisfied with the buyer's choice, the ban will not go into effect But if an eerily effective algorithm was not part of the deal, it is an open question whether the app will be the same by its new owner

If no buyers are found - not an unrealistic proposition, given the high price tag - Google and Apple would be forced to remove TikTok from their respective app stores in the US

Even then, it is not clear whether the government would attempt to force the removal of the app from already-installed smartphones But even if this is not part of the plan, without updates, TikTok may gradually become less attractive over time

But it could all come to a halt before it gets that far

For one thing, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has reversed his initial support for the ban, arguing that it gives too much power to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram The Republican senator may be following his current beliefs instead of his previous ones

And there are potential legal obstacles For example, there are questions about whether the bill would violate the part of the Constitution that prohibits Congress from targeting certain groups

More seriously, there are significant questions about banning the app on First Amendment grounds; ByteDance has no shortage of money for a lengthy court battle, and there is a good chance that a judge will strike down the bill before it goes into law