TikTok has had a very rough road in the United States recently The government is hard at work trying to ban the app Just recently, the House of Representatives approved a bill that would force ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to sell the app within a year or be banned in the US

This is not the government's first attempt to ban the popular social video-sharing application, but it appears to be the attempt most likely to succeed, as the bill was signed by Joe Biden on Wednesday morning

The bill, which would force the sale of TikTok, was introduced as part of a package that would also provide aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan Opposition was minimal as the Senate approved this bill 79-18 By submitting this bill along with other high-priority foreign aid packages, the Administration was able to pass the ban more quickly

Just minutes after the Senate approved the bill, the President of the United States issued a statement that he intended to sign the bill into law on Wednesday In an official statement, President Biden said, "I have signed this bill and will address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow As promised, the President signed the bill on April 24, 2024

With President Biden's signing of the bill, ByteDance will have approximately nine months to sell the company or face a ban President Biden has the option to extend the sale period by 90 days, which would give TikTok's parent company a full year to sell

The US government is actively seeking a ban on TikTok because it fears that the company's structure would give the Chinese government access to US users' data; ByteDance has refuted these claims, but that has not stopped the House, Senate, or Biden from pursuing a ban to pursue a ban

TikTok is extremely popular and has over 170 million users Thanks to its enormous reach, TikTok has transformed into an economic and cultural phenomenon The impact of banning the app would be far-reaching However, it is easy to imagine users flocking to another vertical video platform such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, or something new

Chinese-owned companies are expected to fight this ban aggressively Just last week, the US House of Representatives issued a statement claiming that "under the cover of vital foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, they are once again trying to pass a ban that tramples the free speech rights of 170 million Americans"