President Joe Biden signed a bill on April 24th that would ban TikTok, the shortform video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, if the company doesn’t sell the platform off within a year. ByteDance has nine months from that date to divest itself from the app, with a potential three-month extension if the president is satisfied with its progress. On May 7th, TikTok sued the government over the potential ban, calling the law unconstitutional and claiming it “subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”
Discussions about banning TikTok have seen politicians in the US and internationally accuse it of being a tool for propaganda and a security risk. Attempts to force a sale of TikTok first began under the Trump administration before culminating in the successful late-April legislative push.
Prior to the law’s signing, a slew of TikTok bans across the US barred the app from devices tied to universities and government hardware at the state, local, and federal levels.
While some experts say there’s no evidence the app has done any more damage or risked user privacy beyond what we’ve seen from companies like Facebook or Google, politicians nevertheless successfully passed a measure to ban TikTok entirely if they can’t force a separation from ByteDance.
Read on for all the latest news on a potential TikTok ban in the US.
Highlights
- TikTok sues the US government over ban
- Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it
- How the House quietly revived the TikTok ban before most of us noticed
- House passes bill that could ban TikTok
- TikTok is urging users to call Congress about a looming ban
- A US judge has blocked Montana’s TikTok ban.
- VPNs, Verizon, and Instagram Reels: how students are getting around the TikTok ban
Jun 20
TikTok makes its First Amendment case
TikTok says that the government didn’t adequately consider viable alternative options before charging ahead with a law that could ban the platform in the US. TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, claims that it provided the US government with an extensive and detailed plan to mitigate national security risks and that this plan was largely ignored when Congress passed a law with a huge impact on speech.
Read Article >In briefs filed at the DC Circuit Court on Thursday, both TikTok and a group of creators on the platform who’ve filed their own suit spelled out their case for why they believe the new law violates the First Amendment. The court is set to hear oral arguments in the case on September 16th, just a few months before the current divest-or-ban deadline of January 19th, 2025.
Jun 4
TikTok is aware of a ‘potential’ exploit being used to take over brand accounts.According to Forbes, TikTok accounts for Paris Hilton and CNN have been hijacked recently by a “zero-day” attack in the app’s DMs that could be activated simply by opening the message.
TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek sent us this statement:
Our security team is aware of a potential exploit targeting a number of brand and celebrity accounts. We have taken measures to stop this attack and prevent it from happening in the future. We’re working directly with affected account owners to restore access, if needed.
May 31
TikTok is reportedly splitting its source code to create a US-only algorithm
A report from Reuters says that work has been ongoing since last year to create a version of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm that operates independently from Douyin, the Chinese version of the app operated by its parent company ByteDance. According to the unnamed sources, completing the project could take more than a year as part of a plan to show lawmakers that the US business is independent of its owner in Beijing.
Read Article >The report says executives have talked about the project in all-hands meetings and on the company’s internal messaging system, Lark. The sources also said that splitting the source code would cut TikTok off from the “massive engineering development power” of its parent company.
May 28
TikTok will have its day in court this fall.Oral arguments in its case against the federal divest-or-ban bill will be scheduled for this September, according to an order from the DC Circuit Court. That’s just months before the initial January 19th deadline its Chinese owner ByteDance has to sell the app or face a ban. The clock keeps running unless the court says otherwise.
DC Circuit Court order[DocumentCloud]
May 16
TikTok is suing the US government — can it beat the ban?On today’s episode of Decoder, Verge editors Alex Heath and Sarah Jeong join me to discuss the lawsuit TikTok filed last week against the US government in response to the divest-or-ban bill.
One reason I wanted to have both Alex and Sarah on here is that there’s a lot of back and forth between the facts and the law; some of TikTok’s arguments are contradicted by the simple facts of what the company has already promised to do around the world, and some of the legal claims are complex and sit in tension with a long history of attempts to regulate speech and the internet.
TikTok averted a ban once before under the Trump administration. But this time around, the bill is on far more solid footing, and TikTok is arguing that divesting its US business is not possible “commercially, technologically, or legally.” So we walked through each of those arguments one by one.
May 14
Eight TikTok creators file their own suit against the divest-or-ban law
Eight TikTok creators are suing to stop a law that would ban the app unless its Chinese parent company divests it, arguing that the measure would strip them of their livelihoods and creative outlets.
Read Article >The suit is similar to the company’s own challenge to the law in that it leans on First Amendment arguments, calls lawmakers’ concerns around the app speculative, and recalls that courts have blocked other methods of banning TikTok, including former President Donald Trump’s executive order and a Montana state law. But while the company’s suit details the alleged impracticality of separating TikTok from its owner ByteDance, the creators’ suit focuses squarely on how their own speech could be impacted if TikTok went away.
May 7
TikTok sues the US government over ban
TikTok is suing the US government over the new law that would force the shortform video app to be divested from its China-based parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the US. In a court filing submitted Tuesday, TikTok says Congress has “taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok” and calls the move “unconstitutional.”
Read Article >The complaint argues that a sale from ByteDance isn’t possible and that the law would “force a shutdown” by January 19th, 2025.
Apr 30
CBP is interrogating TikTok employees
Immigration officers have interrogated more than 30 TikTok employees who traveled to the US, Forbes reports. Some workers at TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, have been pulled aside by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and held for additional questioning, according to the report. Many of the workers who have been singled out are Chinese nationals.
Read Article >Some of the people who have been interrogated work in machine learning or data engineering. CBP agents have asked them about their access to US users’ TikTok data. The workers have also been asked about the location of TikTok’s US-based data centers and their own individual involvement with Project Texas, a massive corporate restructuring project designed to wall off US user data from ByteDance’s workers in China.
Apr 29
The legal challenges that lie ahead for TikTok — in both the US and China
After failing to stop a bill that could ban TikTok in the US unless it separates from its China-based owner ByteDance, the company now faces two big hurdles: the US judicial system and the Chinese government.
Read Article >TikTok has promised to bring a legal challenge against the law that was signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, which requires ByteDance to divest the app within a year or face an effective ban in the US. Experts expect its main arguments to center on alleged violations of its own First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million US users. But it won’t be an easy fight since judges often hesitate to make decisions of national security importance where the legislature has so forcefully weighed in.
Apr 26
What happens to TikTok?
This week’s TikTok news came with a strong feeling of déjà vu. Now, with the Biden administration giving up to a year for the app to be spun off from ByteDance or face a ban from the US, the question is: what happens next?
Read Article >ByteDance has been clear that it will fight this new law in the courts on First Amendment grounds, which is how it successfully defeated the Trump administration’s 2020 ban attempt. After talking to sources in and around the company, I think spinning off TikTok is the last-resort measure for leadership. CEO Shou Chew and other execs encouraged staff to stay the course during a humdrum all-hands meeting at TikTok’s New York City headquarters earlier this week, according to two people in attendance.
Apr 26
Patreon weighs in on the potential TikTok ban.The creator subscription platform markets itself as basically the opposite of the algorithm-driven TikTok — but that doesn’t mean Patreon is celebrating the forced divestment from ByteDance.
Banning TikTok just serves to further entrench YouTube and Instagram as the dominant platforms in this industry. But more competition is good for creators–it gives them more leverage and ultimately more control over their businesses.
Apr 26
TikTok doesn’t seem very high on the US / China priority list.US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with China’s Xi Jinping today to discuss everything from AI to the war in Ukraine. But “TikTok did not come up,” Blinken told reporters at a short press conference following his meetings today. Seriously, that’s all he said. Maybe next time.
Xi and Blinken Trade Small Nods Over a Large Gap[The New York Times]
Apr 25
ByteDance would rather shut TikTok down than sell it, according to Reuters.Meanwhile, sources tell The Information that ByteDance is “internally exploring scenarios for selling.” It’s been literally one day since the divest-or-ban ultimatum became law, so I hope you’re ready for another nine to twelve months of spin.
Apr 25
Why the TikTok ban won’t solve the US’s online privacy problems.Our latest episode of Decoder is about the brand-new TikTok ban — and how years of congressional inaction on a federal privacy law helped lead us to this moment of apparent national panic about algorithmic social media.
This is a thorny discussion, and to help break it all down, I invited Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner on the show. Lauren has been closely covering efforts to ban TikTok for years now, and she’s also watched Congress fail to pass meaningful privacy regulation for even longer. We’ll go over how we got here, what this means for both TikTok and efforts to pass new privacy legislation, and what might happen next.
Apr 25
Anyone want to buy TikTok?
It was going to happen, and then it wasn’t going to happen, and then it happened. The United States Congress passed a bill that would either ban TikTok or force it to be sold, and President Joe Biden signed it.
Read Article >So... what now? TikTok could sue, and win, and go back to normal. TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, could just decide to shut it down and move on. Or it could sell TikTok US. Those are really the only three outcomes, and we have a year or less to figure out which it’s going to be.
Apr 24
Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it
President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app within a year.
Read Article >The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three months if he sees progress.
Apr 24
Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden’s desk
A bill that would force China-based company ByteDance to sell TikTok — or else face a US ban of the platform — is all but certain to become law after the Senate passed a foreign aid package including the measure.
Read Article >It now heads to President Joe Biden, who already committed to signing the TikTok legislation should it make it through both chambers of Congress. The House passed the foreign aid package that includes the TikTok bill on Saturday.
Apr 22
The great conundrum of campaigning on TikTok
Joe Biden faces the camera, casually dressed for a US president in khaki slacks and a quarter zip. He jovially answers a series of questions about the Super Bowl happening that day: Chiefs or Niners? Jason Kelce or Travis Kelce? And finally: Trump or Biden?
Read Article >“Are you kidding? Biden,” the president says with a smile.
Apr 20
TikTok ‘ban’ passes in the House again, moving to the Senate in foreign aid package
The House once again passed a bill that could ban TikTok from the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance divests it — but this time, it’s in a way that will be harder for the Senate to stall.
Read Article >The bill passed 360-58 as part of a larger bill related to sanctions on foreign adversaries like Russia. It’s part of a package of foreign aid bills that seek to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Due to the urgency of the funds, packaging the TikTok bill with these measures means that the Senate will need to consider the proposal more swiftly that it would as a standalone bill. The earlier TikTok bill, which passed the House 352-65 just last month, has so far lingered in the Senate, with lawmakers there giving mixed messages about its future.
Apr 19
Apple ordered to remove WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram from the App Store in China.While US lawmakers take aim at TikTok, The Wall Street Journal reports that several popular messaging apps were removed by Apple at the request of the Chinese government which will make it harder for people in the country to download the apps for use with a VPN. Reuters notes that Meta apps like Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram are still available.
Here’s Apple’s statement on the matter:
“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns. We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.”
China Orders Apple to Remove WhatsApp From App Store[The Wall Street Journal]
Apr 18
TikTok’s infamous algorithm and its link to a failed real estate app.Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, but previously served as the CEO of 99Fang, a Chinese home finder startup with “very powerful” tech for search, image processing, and recommendations.
Now, The New York Times reports that former contractors suing Susquehanna, an investor in both companies, claim technology they developed for 99Fang was used to create TikTok without compensating them.
Apr 18
TikTok divest-or-ban legislation could suddenly be fast-tracked in the Senate
A bill that could oust TikTok from the US looked like it could linger for months in the Senate, even after the House overwhelmingly voted to approve it. But a move by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could change that.
Read Article >An updated version of the bill, which would enforce a ban of TikTok unless it divests from its China-based parent company, ByteDance, appears in a bill about sanctions on Russia and Iran. A separate bill that would prohibit data brokers from transferring US users’ information to foreign adversaries is also included. It’s part of a package on foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza. By combining the legislation, it could make the TikTok bill harder for the Senate to ignore.
Apr 17
The president could delay a TikTok ban an extra six months under a reported House proposal.The proposal, reported by Axios, would give the president discretion to extend the initial six month period for TikTok to find a buyer and separate from its Chinese parent ByteDance. The Senate is already considering a longer timeframe for the forced sale, as many analysts doubt six months is sufficient.
Apr 17
TikTok Notes starts rolling out as a new rival to Instagram
TikTok has started rolling out its Instagram rival, TikTok Notes, to select Android and iOS users “for download and limited testing in Australia and Canada.” A tweet announcing the launch, as well as the App Store and Google Play listings, showed off some official images of the app that offer insights about how it works for those of us who don’t have access yet.
Read Article >In them, we see that you can write up headlines for images above your captions, which is a feature Instagram doesn’t natively offer.
Apr 4
The claims of a “former TikTok employee turned whistleblower.”Wired writes that Zen Goziker says he has met with Congressional staff members to share concerns about TikTok’s data practices and claims to be the source for multiple articles about the company and “Project Texas” based on his experiences working there for six months.
The article also says:
He asserts that he was put under 24-hour surveillance by TikTok and the FBI while working remotely in Mexico. He claims that US attorney general Merrick Garland, director of national intelligence Avril Haines, and other top officials “wickedly instigated” his firing. And he states that the FBI helped the CIA share his private information with foreign governments. The suits do not appear to include evidence for any of these claims.