Biden Signs Bill Banning TikTok In United States

A measure aimed at banning the social media app TikTok in the US has been signed into law by President Joe Biden.

The application's parent company, ByteDance, is required under the bill previously passed by the US Congress to sell the app within 9 months or risk having it banned in the US.

On Wednesday, April 24, Biden signed the law that was a part of the $95 billion foreign aid package that Congress had approved this week. The bill will increase funding to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

TikTok, however, has promised to challenge the new regulation in court.

In a statement, the company's representative, Alex Haurek, declared the law to be illegal and promised to fight it in court.

Defying an executive order that would have barred all US-based transactions with ByteDance if the firm did not divest the app within 45 days, TikTok defeated former President Donald Trump's attempt in 2020 to force the sale of the app.

TikTok has grown to become one of the most widely used social media platforms globally since its inception in 2016. It achieved this by utilizing recommendation algorithms that were more effective than those of competing applications in introducing content creators to new audiences.

The application has over two billion mobile downloads worldwide as of April, and many of its users are young.