A potential ban of TikTok in the US passed the House of Representatives over the weekend as part of a bipartisan $95 billion foreign aid package.
The crackdown on social media may be poised to become law, as President Joe Biden has promised to sign it if it passes the Senate and reaches his desk.
The TikTok measure could still be removed from foreign aid legislation in the Senate, but that would require sending the entire package back to the House for another vote. He emphasized that urgent action should be taken to provide additional money to Ukraine and Israel.
If passed, the measure would result in the popular social media app being sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. If there is no sale, the application will be banned.
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TikTok did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. In an earlier statement, TikTok criticized the renewed efforts behind the purge.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the mask of significant foreign and humanitarian aid to once again block a ban bill that would trample the free speech of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shut down a contributing platform. He stated that he made billions of dollars.
Here’s what you need to know about whether the ban will go into effect, what this means for users, and how people can try to get around the ban.
Will TikTok eventually be banned?
Even if the measure becomes law, TikTok could still avoid the ban.
ByteDance may choose to sell TikTok to ensure continued availability of the app for US users. The bill passed by the parliament gives ByteDance a nine-month sales right, with the potential for a three-month extension.
Regardless of a potential sale, the measure would likely prompt a legal challenge on First Amendment grounds that could invalidate the law altogether, experts say.
Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University, previously told ABC News that TikTok and its users may challenge the law for violations of constitutionally protected free speech. In opposition, the U.S. government will likely argue that national security concerns should outweigh First Amendment protections, Chander said.
Congress moves closer to forcing TikTok to sell or face US ban: What’s next?
Last May, TikTok sued Montana in federal court over the state’s ban of the app, saying the law violated users’ First Amendment rights. Months later, in November, a federal judge ruled in favor of TikTok and blocked the law before it took effect.
But the measure in Montana may offer little insight into the legal ramifications of the federal ban, Sarah Kreps, director of the Technology Policy Institute at Cornell University, told ABC News. While lawmakers in Montana banned TikTok on privacy and child safety grounds, federal law draws on national security considerations.
“These are apples and oranges,” Kreps said.
Still, if the U.S. passes a law banning TikTok, a federal judge could order a temporary pause while the legal challenge works its way through the court system because of the far-reaching implications of such a measure.
How would a possible ban work?
The measure would ban TikTok by removing it from US app stores, including popular platforms on iPhone and Android.
Experts told ABC News that new customers won’t be able to download the app, while existing users will lose access to vital updates.
“Users can continue to keep the app on their mobile devices, but they won’t be able to receive updates and it will eventually become outdated,” Qi Liao, a computer science professor at Central Michigan University, told ABC News.
Liao added that after the ban goes into effect, users will be able to use the app for up to a year, but the app will break and eventually become unusable.
The potential decline of the app would mean a “slow fade,” Kreps said.
“The reason people want to use TikTok is because it’s easy, it’s fun, and it has a beautiful user interface,” Kreps said. he added. “Without updates over time, it wouldn’t have the same features that users enjoy.”
Will users find ways to bypass the ban?
Some users will likely be able to get around the ban, but it will be too difficult or inconvenient for many, experts said.
“For the majority of people, this will be too much trouble,” Liao said. “Someone who is tech-savvy and motivated can do this.”
For example, individuals can perform offline app installation by bypassing the app store, Liao said. To do this, he added, a person can download an installation package from the internet, move it to a USB drive, and transfer it to their phone.
Experts said people can use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, which allows people to pretend to be a user logging in from somewhere abroad, thus bypassing the US-specific ban.
Kreps said some users will get around the ban, but over time the difficulty and frustration will likely drive them to a rival service.
“This will not be an on/off switch,” he added. “But people will take the path of least resistance.”
ABC News’ Lauren Peller, Alex Ederson and Jay O’Brien contributed to this report.
Congress appears ready to pass a potential TikTok ban in the US. How would it work? appeared first on abcnews.go.com