TikTok dead-man walking after US Senate passes TikTok ban bill included in $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan

Update 2024-04-24 11:00 PST: President Biden has signed the package into law.

TikTok is now a dead-man walking after the US Senate passed a bill that forces TikTok to be sold to an American-friendly buyer or face fines of $5,000 per user based in America. With at least 100 million users in America in 2023, the TikTok fine would total over half a trillion dollars.

Passage of single-subject bills in America can be problematic when the House and Senate are divided on an issue. The TikTok bill easily passed the House, but stalled in the Senate the first time it was introduced to Congress earlier this year.

Stuffing a bill into a package of bills that Congress is ready to pass increases the chances the bill will pass, and this is exactly what was done when the TikTok bill, otherwise known as “the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” (H.R. 7521), was incorporated into called the ‘‘21st Century Peace through Strength Act’’ (H.R. 8038) and pushed through the House to the Senate with three other bills in a single package to provide over $95 billion of war money to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

After President Biden signs the package into law, Chinese-owner ByteDance will have up to 270 days to either leave the US market, face a half trillion dollar fine, or divest TikTok to an American-friendly buyer. The package also includes the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 (H.R. 7521) which requires all data on American-based users to be housed in an American-friendly country to protect personal information from Chinese government access.

ByteDance has stated it will not transfer the secret algorithms that make TikTok such a successful social media service. This means the sale of TikTok will neuter it, reducing the effectiveness of the platform for influencers making money on the platform. Invested TikTok users should prepare by backing up their TikTok videos and data as well as identifying competing social media platforms to use. The company has stated it will file a lawsuit to fight the ban.