House passes bill to ban TikTok if app isn’t sold

The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday that would require the Chinese owner of TikTok to either sell the app or have it banned in the U.S., The New York Times reported.

The bill had broad bipartisan support despite the efforts of TikTok to mobilize its millions of users, many of them young people,, according to The Times. The Biden administration argued that Chinese ownership of the video app poses national security risks to the U.S., such as meddling in elections.

The bill still needs to pass in the Senate, and according to The Times it could be difficult. The majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, has not committed to sending the bill to the floor for a vote. Some senators have said they would fight the bill, and even if passed, it’s likely to face legal challenges, The Times reported. 

TikTok has been under threat since 2020. Lawmakers have argued that Beijing’s relationship with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, raises national security risks, according to The Times. The bill aims to get ByteDance to sell TikTok to non-Chinese owners within six months. If the sale does not happen the app would be banned in the U.S.