Will TikTok be deleted? Here's what happens next after Biden signs TikTok sell-or-ban bill

Time’s up for TikTok?

A bill that could lead to the nationwide ban of TikTok was signed into law on Wednesday by President Biden, USA TODAY reported. The legislation, which has received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, per USA TODAY, gives TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, up to a year to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban. If banned, the app would disappear from Apple and Google’s app stores for U.S. phone users.

TikTok's fate has been prolonged given that the time ByteDance has to divest TikTok – nine months, with a possible three-month extension – is far longer than the six-month deadline the original House measure proposed. 

“We think a year is an ample time to allow potential investors to come forward for due diligence to be completed and for lawyers to draw up and finalize contracts,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said Tuesday on the Senate floor, according to USA TODAY.

However, the legislation will likely face legal challenges from TikTok and its supporters and government resistance from Beijing, meaning a ban could take far longer than a year to go into effect, as USA TODAY reports.

"This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court," TikTok said in a statement Wednesday. "We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail."

Why is TikTok getting banned in the U.S.?

The new TikTok law comes on the heels of years of national debate surrounding potential national security risks posed by the platform.

In November 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that he was “extremely concerned” the Chinese government could weaponize the data collected through TikTok, USA TODAY wrote.

Lawmakers say control of the app by a foreign adversary poses the potential for Beijing to use it to collect intelligence on U.S. users and to spread Chinese government propaganda on sensitive topics such as the Israel-Hamas war.

"Many Americans, particularly young Americans, are rightfully skeptical. At the end of the day, they've not seen what Congress has seen. They've not been in the classified briefings that Congress has held, which have delved more deeply into some of the threats posed by foreign control of TikTok," Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

TikTok says it has never been asked to provide U.S. user data to the Chinese government and wouldn’t if asked.

When will TikTok be deleted?

The new law grants ByteDance up to a year to sell TikTok, and if the parent company does not divest from the app by then, a nationwide ban would go into effect. So, it would take at least a year for the app to be banned – should the law be challenged in court, this process could be prolonged months, even years.

If and when a ban goes into effect, TikTok will not suddenly disappear from users' phones.

How would a TikTok ban work?

A ban would mean TikTok will be removed from Apple and Google’s app stores, which means those who didn't previously have the app won’t be able to download it. It would still be available on the phones of users who already had it, but TikTok would not be able to update the app or send bug fixes or security patches. So over time, the app would become unusable.

Are there workarounds to the TikTok ban?

Banning the app won’t necessarily stop TikTok fans in the U.S. from using it.

Various strategies for staying on TikTok are available to tech-savvy users, including using a VPN (virtual private network) or changing the phone location to fool the app stores. Another option is "side-loading" − downloading and installing a bootleg version of the TikTok app from the internet − but doing so carries the risk of downloading malware. Users could even install a foreign SIM card into their phone to try to maintain the app.