On April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "ban" on TikTok with a vote of 360 to 58, and it will be submitted to the Senate as part of the foreign aid package for another vote. If passed, it will be signed into effect by U.S. President Biden. The following day, TikTok stated that the legislation would "trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans".

President Biden and many U.S. lawmakers had previously believed that TikTok posed significant risks to U.S. national security due to the inability to guarantee the personal data of 170 million American users. However, TikTok insisted that it had never shared and would never share American data.

Four years ago, when the Trump administration sought to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S., ByteDance reached a preliminary agreement to sell its short-video app business in the country. Now, the Biden administration is determined that ByteDance must either divest or be banned - if ByteDance does not sell its stake within a year, the app will be banned for use in the U.S.

It is reported that if progress is made in the agreement, the legislation will give ByteDance about nine months to divest TikTok's assets in the U.S., with the president having the discretion to extend it for another three months.

However, TikTok has made it clear that it has no intention of selling its stake and stated in a statement: "It is regrettable that the House has once again forced through a bill targeting TikTok under the guise of important foreign and humanitarian aid. This will trample on the free speech of 170 million Americans, destroy 7 million businesses, and threaten the closure of a platform that contributes $24 billion annually to the U.S. economy."

It is worth noting that Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, had remained silent on the legislation earlier, but after updates to the foreign aid package, she has shown support. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that if the TikTok bill becomes law, ByteDance will consider divestment measures only after exhausting all legal options.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University believes that the latest legislation will not bring substantive progress because China and other countries can still purchase the personal data of Americans on the open market and engage in false propaganda on American social media platforms. Some Democrats have also expressed concerns about freedom of speech regarding the ban and have called for stronger data privacy legislation.

On April 23, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform stating that Biden needs to "take responsibility for the TikTok ban," and pointed out, "Biden is doing this to help his friends at Facebook become richer and more powerful, and to continue (or illegally) oppose the Republican Party."