The House first passed the “Protect Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” by a 352-65 vote in March.
A TikTok ban was also part of the four stand-alone bills passed and merged into one to advance to the Senate last week.
The Senate then passed the foreign aid bill by a 79-18 vote. That includes the National Security Supplemental bill which Biden signed it into law Wednesday.
In a video published in March, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew vowed to "not stop fighting and advocating for you," referring to U.S. users.
"We will continue to do all we can," he continued, "including exercising our legal rights to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you."
The number of U.S. users is a staggering number, approximately 150 million, which is almost half the population.
Under the new law, TikTok faces two choices: bring in new ownership or be banned in the U.S.
TikTok responded in an unsigned statement on Wednesday saying it will challenge the law in court.
“We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,” the statement said.
Jake Denton, the Tech Policy Center research associate at The Heritage Foundation, isn’t so sure about that. He said on American Family Radio Thursday the TikTok ban has nothing to do with free speech.
“They’re not being banned for their speech or the speech on the platform," Denton explained. " They’re being banned for their data collection practices and the way they’re endangering our national security by collecting vast troves of American consumer data and sending it back to China en masse."
Easy as a light switch
TikTok is a multi-billion dollar product of ByteDance, a Chinese-based company headquartered in Beijing. The founder is Zhang Yiming, an Internet entrepreneur, but in China there is no business nor billionaire who is free under the tyrannical reach of the Chinese Communist Party.
Denton said Chew (pictured at left) lied in congressional testimony a year ago when he said TikTok user data is not flowing back to China. There have been "countless whistleblowers" come forward from inside the company to say they were ordered by ByteDance to send data back to China, the Heritage expert said.
During congressional testimony last year, Sen. Josh Hawley said his office was informed by a whistleblower that TikTok executives can access U.S. data so easily it's like flipping on a light switch.
"[Chew] lied before Congress. He’s lying about the nature of this legislation," Denton said, "And really, what was done by President Biden yesterday, signing this into law, was the right thing to do."
Divestment would occur between November and January if TikTok were to comply with the law, Denton said.
TikTok’s next steps show its cards
But the company has pledged a legal fight and in doing so has confirmed suspicions.
“They’ve made it very clear they have no intention to divest, which right away essentially affirms the nature of this legislation," Denton alleged. "If you’re willing to go down with the ship here and not sell, with that sale could be upwards of $100 billion, there’s obviously something more under the hood."
Denton predicted the legal fight could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
The national security risks of sending information to China may seem clear to some, but the fact is is that TikTok is an important campaign tool Democrats. That reality will be heavily weighed, Denton said.
“I mean, it's no secret that the Left loves this platform, from President Biden's campaign having an account and still posting on there nearly as frequently as the average eighth-grade girl, to dozens of members of Congress, and thousands of advocacy organizations that are pushing the Left’s message," Denton said.
Because of TikTok's campaign help, Denton said Democrats are pushing the free speech argument when the true issue is data privacy and a surveillance tool of the Chinese Communist Party.
Denton said Democrats’ passion for TikTok is obvious in their manipulation of the legislation and actually extending the divestment window to remain open until after the 2024 elections.
“It’s so obvious what they’re doing,” Denton said. “There was a world in which the divestment would have to have occurred by October. Now, in theory, they can use it through Election Day."
