As he previously said he would, President Joe Biden signed a bill that could ban Tiktok in the United States if it fails to divest its platform within a year.
The railroaded TikTok bill, bundled with foreign military aid packages, signals ByteDance to take serious action.
The law initially gives the company nine months to work through a deal, and the president may extend that for another three months.
Meanwhile, TikTok refuses to back down and, through its spokesperson, Alex Haurek, expressed its plans to challenge the law in court; this could delay enforcement while the appeal is tackled.
“As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired,” Haurek said.
TikTok has 170 million users in the US.
CEO Shou Zi Chew assures the public in a video hours after Biden ratified the bill that they “aren’t going anywhere.”
“The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again.”
He added that this law is an attack on freedom of speech: “Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice.”
“Politicians may say otherwise, but don’t get confused. Many who sponsored the bill admit a TikTok ban is the ultimate goal,” he added.
Tech mogul Elon Musk earlier expressed his opposition to the ban.
“In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the 𝕏 platform,” remarked Musk, who has long advocated for free speech.
“Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.”
Even former President Donald Trump opposed the ban.
In a post on his Truth Social account, President Trump holds Biden responsible for the TikTok takedown.
“Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” the presumptive Republican nominee said.
“[Biden] is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party,” Trump said Monday.
“It’s called election interference!”
“Young people, and lots of others, must remember this on November 5th, Election Day, when they vote! They also must remember, more importantly, that he is destroying our country and is a major threat to democracy!”
He had already shared similar views in an interview with CNBC last month.
“I sort of said, you guys decide you make that decision because it’s a tough decision to make. Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users. There’s, you know, a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger.”
“And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. What Facebook did with lock boxes, with $500 million of Zuckerberg’s lock boxes that he put in. I mean, I considered it illegal.”
