The CEO of short video app TikTok plans to challenge US ban law

TikTok's CEO predicts a legal battle to overturn a US President-signed bill banning the short video app, with the sale deadline set for January 19, but Biden may extend it by three months.

TikTok's CEO predicts a legal battle to overturn a bill signed by US President Joe Biden, outlawing the popular short video app. The deadline for a sale is set for January 19, but Biden may extend it by three months if he believes ByteDance is making progress. Biden is running against Trump for a second term. Trump's attempt to outlaw TikTok and Tencent's Chinese-owned WeChat in the US was thwarted by the courts in 2020.

The US Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill late on Tuesday, fueled by widespread concerns among US senators that China could access US citizens' data or use the app to spy on them. On Saturday, the US House of Representatives gave it their approval. A major battleground in Washington and Beijing's four-year struggle over the internet and technology is the TikTok controversy.

Apple announced last week that it had received an order from China to remove Threads and WhatsApp from Meta Platforms' Chinese App Store due to concerns about Chinese national security. TikTok users plan to file lawsuits again, and the company plans to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds. A state ban on TikTok was overturned by a US judge in Montana in November on the grounds of free speech.