Biden signs bill package that includes a possible ban on TikTok. Here’s what you should know.

At a press conference Wednesday morning, President Biden announced that he had signed into law the supplemental national security bill, which includes a possible ban on TikTok. The president was clear about his intention to support such a ban despite joining the video-sharing app in February. He did not mention TikTok’s provision during his press conference.

On Tuesday night, in a 79-18 vote, the Senate approved legislation that could ban TikTok if its China-based parent company, ByteDance, does not divest itself of the platform. The TikTok provision was included in a package of bills that would send aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

TikTok responded on Wednesday, saying it will challenge the decision in court.

Let’s rewind. Here’s a quick timeline of the TikTok ban.

In March, the House passed a stand-alone version of the ban requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok within 180 days (about six months). But it seemed unclear whether the Senate agreed that TikTok posed a threat to national security. This came a year after lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee brought TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to testify about the platform’s ties to China.

According to The Washington PostMembers of Congress and the Biden administration had been working for months to develop this latest bill.

The newest iteration now gives ByteDance nine months to sell the app or face a nationwide ban. The president could also grant a one-time 90-day extension if ByteDance proves it is on track to divest.

When would the ban come into force?

TikTok’s first ban could begin in January 2025 – or April 2025 if the one-time extension is granted. However, legal experts predict that with TikTok threatening legal action, the ban could be delayed for even longer.

A source told NBC News that the upcoming presidential election was “definitely” “conveniently addressed” within the new deadline. Former President Donald Trump also tried to leverage Biden’s support for the ban in a Truth Social post, advising young people to “remember this on November 5th, ELECTION DAY”. (Trump signed an executive order in August 2020 to ban TikTok if ByteDance didn’t sell it within 45 days. It was later blocked in court.)

What would a ban look like for Americans?

If ByteDance cannot or refuses to sell TikTok within the stipulated time frame, it will be illegal for app stores and web hosting companies such as Akamai Technologies to distribute or update the app.

TikTok was banned in India nearly four years ago, along with dozens of other Chinese-owned apps, following a military clash along the India-China border. India had around 200 million TikTok users – the US has around 170 million – making it the country with the most users outside of China.

Within months of the ban, these millions of users in India migrated to Google’s YouTube Shorts and Instagram’s Reels, which is also a likely future for American users. But it appears that this would go against the Biden administration’s attempts to stop tech giants from becoming even more powerful.

A big difference between India’s ban and the potential US ban is that TikTok has said it will go to court against the US decision, which it did not do for India’s ban, citing the First Amendment.

What are the 1st Amendment concerns with banning TikTok?

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement Wednesday that the ban is “unconstitutional.”

“The First Amendment means that the government cannot restrict Americans’ access to foreign ideas, information, or media without a good reason for doing so — and there is no such reason here,” Jaffer said. “Repackaging the government’s reasons for the ban in ‘national security’ language does not change the analysis. There is no national security exception to the First Amendment.”