AFP
The TikTok logo is displayed outside TikTok offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023.
The US Senate on Tuesday approved legislation requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be shut out of the American market.
The measure was part of a US$95 billion foreign aid package which has now cleared Congress and heads to President Joe Biden's desk.
TikTok has 170 million users in the United States alone.
The bill, which could trigger the rare step of barring a company from operating in the US market, passed the Senate by a 79-18 vote three days after it cleared the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support.
Biden has stated he will sign the legislation.
TikTok complained after Saturday's House vote, saying it was "unfortunate" that lawmakers sought to "jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes US$24 billion to the US economy, annually."
Under the bill, ByteDance would have to sell the app within a year or be excluded from Apple and Google's app stores in the United States.
Steven Mnuchin, who served as US treasury secretary under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, has said he is interested in acquiring TikTok and has assembled a group of investors.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, came out Friday against banning TikTok, saying "doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression."
