TikTok Faces United States Ban

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner or be banned from the United States.

The legislation is a major setback for the video-sharing app, which has surged in popularity across the world while causing nervousness about its Chinese ownership and its potential subservience to the Communist Party in Beijing.

The lawmakers voted 352 in favor of the proposed law and 65 against, in a rare moment of unity in politically divided Washington.

The warning shot against the app caught many by surprise as both Republicans and Democrats risked the wrath of TikTok's passionate young users in an election year when the youth vote will be key.

But the fate of the bill is uncertain in the more cautious Senate, where some are apprehensive of making a drastic move against an app that has 170 million US users.

President Joe Biden will sign the bill, known officially as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, into law if it comes to his desk, the White House has said.

"This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban," said a spokesperson for TikTok in a statement.

The measure, which only gained momentum in the past few days, requires TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell the app within 180 days or see it barred from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States.

The renewed campaign against TikTok came out of the blue to the company with TikTok executives reassured when Biden joined the app last month as part of his campaign for a second term.

When Trump was president, he attempted to wrest control of TikTok from ByteDance, but was blocked by US courts.

Other efforts to ban TikTok have failed, with a bill proposed a year ago getting nowhere largely over free speech concerns.