DAVAO CITY — United States President Joe Biden has signed the law banning TikTok in the United States which means either ban TikTok or force a sale of the short-form video app.
Although Mr Biden has signed the bill into law, it does not mean an immediate US ban for TikTok.
The law gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok to a new buyer, with an additional three-month grace period, before any ban would take effect.
That means that the sale deadline would most likely come some time in 2025, after the winner of the 2024 presidential election takes office. If Mr Trump wins, he may seek to block the ban from being implemented.
TikTok has vowed to fight the forced sale in the courts, which could take years
“Passage of the new TikTok law only addresses part of the challenge posed by social media to Americans’ security. The Chinese government’s access to TikTok user data is no doubt a threat to our national security, but what’s also concerning are the active cyber threats posed by most social media platforms to their users,” said Amit Yoran, chairman and CEO of Tanable.
“It’s unacceptable that social media applications are still unregulated and continue to broadly collect vast amounts of sensitive user data, such as active locations, contact information, birthdates, personal interests, and user photos. With AI, this kind of personal information can be co-opted much faster to cause interference and influence. Social media companies need to take immediate action to better protect user data or expect to face regulatory oversight,” he added.
