When Will TikTok Ban Go Into Effect?

Although Congress voted to ban TikTok in the United States on Saturday after concerns about it being run by China-based company ByteDance, don’t expect the social media platform to go just yet.

The House of Representatives passed legislation by a 360-58 vote that would ban TikTok if the social media platform’s owner doesn’t sell its stake within a year. The modified measure now goes to the U.S. Senate.

Before the vote, lawmakers in both state and federal governments had been pushing to get rid of the social media platform due to national security reasons despite pushback from free speech advocates. ByteDance has denied links to the Chinese government, along with claims that it shares user information with its Beijing-based parent company.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has previously said he would sign the TikTok legislation if it reaches his desk.

Even if the legislation does become law, the company still would have up to a year to find a buyer. TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, could also challenge the law in court on First Amendment grounds. Court challenges could delay the timeline set by Congress or even block the law from going into effect.

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually,” a TikTok spokesperson told Newsweek via email Saturday afternoon.

Olivia DeRamus, the founder of Communia, a social network for women, said the U.S. government could have avoided many of the larger economic concerns related to a TikTok ban if they got ahead of its influence when it first came out.

“A lot of people’s livelihoods are at stake,” DeRamus previously told Newsweek. “Creators and businesses alike. If the American government had acted quickly when TikTok first came out, it wouldn’t be as much as an issue. But because they waited until TikTok was so widely adopted, this could cause potential disruption to not just the creator economy but the larger economy overall.”

House Republicans included TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package after an earlier version stalled in the Senate. A standalone bill with a six-month selling deadline passed the House in March by an overwhelming bipartisan vote.

Earlier in March, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss the application and concerns that it’s controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” he said during his testimony, adding that he is aware of “the fact that ByteDance has Chinese founders has prompted concerns that our platform could be used as or become a tool of China or the Chinese Communist Party.”

“We do not believe that a ban that hurts American small businesses, damages the country’s economy, silences the voices of over 150 million Americans, and reduces competition in an increasingly concentrated market is the solution to a solvable problem,” Chew added.