The President of the United States, Joe Biden, signed into law this Wednesday (24) the bill that bans TikTok in the United States if ByteDance, the company that owns the app, does not get rid of it within nine months.
On Tuesday, the law had already been voted on by Congress. The measure was approved as part of a broader national security package that provides US$95 billion (about R$490.3 billion) in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, important US allies.
In response to Biden, TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, said the company hopes to challenge the legislation in court.
“Rest assured, we’re not going anywhere,” he said in a video posted moments after Biden signed the bill into law. “The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we hope to prevail again.”
The justification given by supporters of the project is that China’s relationship with ByteDance could pose risks to the national security of the United States, as the company would be forced to share data with the Chinese government.
In 2020, the company sued the government when then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order to block the app and gave ByteDance 90 days to divest itself of its US assets and any data TikTok had collected in the US.
A judge put the ruling on hold hours before it took effect, and Biden revoked Trump’s order when he took office.
Digital security experts have identified that TikTok can track users’ locations, contact lists, personal details and IP addresses, and a clause in its privacy policy allows the collection of biometric data, including “facial and voice prints”.
All of this, according to these experts, would be potential risks to privacy and national security. However, researchers concluded that TikTok does not collect more data than any other social network.
The company claims that it has never shared information from more than 170 million North American users, nor will it do so in the future.
As part of a plan to avoid the possible sale of the operation, TikTok has spent more than $1.5 billion over the past three years on “Project Texas,” a restructuring plan to protect U.S. users’ data and content from influence. Chinese company through a partnership with the American group Oracle.
TikTok is particularly popular among young Americans, a crucial group for Biden in the November election against former President Donald Trump.
The bill package also gives the US president the power to classify other applications as a security threat if they are also from a country considered hostile.
How would the ban work?
Once signed by Biden, the ban will take effect in 270 days unless ByteDance sells TikTok to a non-Chinese company. If not, access will be blocked in the US.
The law will work by imposing civil penalties on app stores, such as Apple’s App Store and Google Play, if they distribute or update TikTok. Internet service providers would also be required to block web access.
Although app stores and internet providers are prohibited from offering access, users will not be subject to any legal enforcement.
A nationwide ban on an app or website is unprecedented in the US — although there have been some precedents at the state and federal level in recent years.
What would the ban mean for users?
The TikTok app has already been downloaded to millions of phones in the US — its biggest global market — and would not disappear if the ban goes into effect. However, users would not be able to update the app or re-download it if they deleted it.
By blocking access to updates, the app would become obsolete over time, but people wouldn’t stop using it overnight.
TikTok could still be accessed by users who skirt the law by using virtual private networks that encrypt internet traffic and hide IP addresses.
(With Reuters and Financial Times)
