Is TikTok Banned? New Bill Explained

TikTok isn't banned—yet.

By Adam Barnhardt

The future of TikTok within the United States has never been murkier. Wednesday morning, the House of Representatives passed a bill that could potentially ban the popular social media app from being used in the country. Though officials within the Trump Administration threatened a ban years ago, the passage of the latest bill is the closest TikTok's ever come to getting banned.

Naturally, TikTok users have been quick to worry given the seriousness of the potential law. Still, the question remains to be asked...

Is TikTok banned in the United States?

As of now, no TikTok isn't banned. For a ban to take place, a number of things need to happen. First off, the language of the bill in question doesn't explicitly ban TikTok per se. Instead, it would force ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, to sell its US-based portion of the business to a company based in the United States. If ByteDance isn't willing to do that, the bill would then prohibit the company from maintaining TikTok within the United States.

Before it gets to the point, which is called a divestment, a few more things need to take place. The Senate needs to also decide to take on the bill and pass it. Should that happen, it would then be sent to the desk of President Joe Biden, where he could either sign it into law or veto it and send it back to Congress. That said, Biden himself noted earlier this month he'd sign the bill into law if both chambers of Congress were able to pass it.

Although the bill would be the first time TikTok has been banned on a federal level, Montana issued a statewide ban on the app last year.

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"The People's Republic of China exercises control and oversight over ByteDance, like other Chinese corporations, and can direct the company to share user information, including real-time physical locations of users," the Montana bill read, which also criticizes TikTok for ailing to remove and promoting "content that directs minors to engage in dangerous activities."

"The bill's champions have admitted that they have no feasible plan for operationalizing this attempt to censor American voices and that the bill's constitutionality will be decided by the courts," TikTok said in a statement. "We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach."

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