WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 23: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew prepares to testify before the House Energy and ... [+]
The clock is ticking on a potential TikTok ban. President Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that gives the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, approximately nine months to either divest or see it banned from use in the United States.
The TikTok order was part of a set of four bills that also included military aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other U.S. allies. The Senate passed the legislation on April 23 and Biden signed it the next day.
In a statement posted on the app, TikTok has vowed to fight the order: “This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail.”
TikTok says it employs nearly 7,000 people in the U.S. and it is unclear what the order, if enforced, will mean for the company and those staff members.
The bill follows growing frustration on Capitol Hill over perceived inaction by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to scrutinize TikTok after ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of social media startup Musical.ly.
U.S. policymakers are increasingly reviewing how companies, particularly foreign-owned ones, collect, store and manage data due to the potential for misuse of this information. The U.S. government has expressed worries that ByteDance could potentially share user data with the Chinese government or engage in influence operations, raising significant security and privacy concerns — which the company denies.
More broadly, the TikTok order underscores ongoing shifts in U.S. foreign investment policy, particularly with regard to technology and data security from foreign entities. National security concerns have heightened in evaluating foreign investments or operations, especially those originating from countries with which the U.S. has complicated geopolitical relationships, such as China.
It is also part of a larger trend of heightened scrutiny and skepticism toward Chinese technology firms and investments in the U.S. This aligns with broader U.S. strategic objectives of countering Chinese influence in critical technology sectors and protecting domestic industries. The expansion of U.S. Treasury measures aimed at bolstering CFIUS’ enforcement power and broadening its scope also signals tighter controls ahead for investments in the U.S. deemed as sensitive.
Whether the ban is eventually enforced or gets tied up in court, the legislation’s passage marks a time period in which digital sovereignty, national security and foreign investment are increasingly interlinked.
