The background to the bill is that Tiktok is accused of making it possible for China to spy on the 170 million American users and gather information about them. The USA also believes that Tiktok is a channel for spreading propaganda, which Bytedance has denied.
Bytedance has until January 19 to sell the business to an owner in the USA, otherwise the company will be banned from the American market according to the law passed last year.
The solution now being discussed from the Chinese side is to let Elon Musk, owner of X, buy the business if the appeal does not go through.
Upon enforcement of a ban, the American government can ask Apple and Google to remove Tiktok from their app stores, which would prevent new downloads. Then the app would remain with the existing 170 million American users – unless Tiktok blocks their access.
According to Tiktok's lawyer Noel Francisco, the site will "go dark" on Sunday if the judiciary fails to block the ban. Even a media report claims that the company plans a complete shutdown of the service in the USA.
