With the previous ban stuck in the Senate, legislators found a way to create a revised version of the bill that provides ByteDance more time to fix matters. With the House of Representatives approving the bill, it has two hurdles left to pass through before becoming effective.
Revised TikTok Ban Bill Progress
Just when ByteDance thought it could breathe a little as the initial ban bill seems to have stalled with the Senate, another one is coming up behind it, and it seems that politicians are more inclined to approve the revised version of the ban.
The new bill is not only revised to provide a more attainable timeframe for the Chinese company, but it is also part of a package of foreign aid bills that aim to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel. It even includes humanitarian aid to Gaza.
With the urgency of matters, the Senate will have to decide quicker whether the larger bill passes or not, and the TikTok ban bill will be pulled with it. Several of the decision-makers who previously stood against the ban are now changing their minds.
For instance, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, whose committee was noncommittal to the previous ban bill, now supported the legislation in the foreign aid package that was recently passed by the House of Representatives, as per The Verge.
New York Representative and top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory Meeks said that he also supports the package, even though he opposed the previous version out of concern that "it would be a broad authorization that could be misused."
Meeks added that "the bill took a step in the right direction with a more realistic timeframe for a complex divesture process. Let me say for the record, that I believe this bill is about one company that additional authorities provided to the executive branch or to be interpreted narrowly."
Of course, some still opposed the package as they also disapproved of the previous bill. Representative Joaquin Castro implied that the app has shown Americans the tragedy that was happening in Gaza under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's command.
Changes in the New Ban Bill
The revised version of the bill gives ByteDance more time to decide what happens to the US branch of TikTok, but the outcome stays the same. The app will either be sold by the parent company to an approved buyer, or it will be banned in the country.
The divestment period is now extended from six months to a year. Cantwell said that "extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done. I support this updated legislation," as reported by The Guardian.
The initial period would first be just nine months, and US President Joe Biden will have the discretion to extend it for three more months, provided that ByteDance agrees to divest and there's progress with a potential deal being made.
