The chaos surrounding a possible TikTok ban, explained

A bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. on national security grounds is gaining steam in Congress. In a rare display of bipartisan consensus, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to pass the bill Thursday, setting it up for a future floor vote. And President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into law if Congress passes it.

TikTok, a video sharing app first launched in 2017, has more than 150 million users in the U.S. The possibility that one of America’s most widely used and influential social media apps could be banned would be a huge deal. There’s no precedent for it. It raises big First Amendment questions. And there’s no way to anticipate how the tens of millions of young people who use the app would react, either as consumers or as activists objecting to the quashing of a popular platform. Oh, and there’s one more wrinkle: In a bizarre turn of events, former President Donald Trump, who for years  sought to ban TikTok in the U.S., has suddenly flipped on the issue and is lobbying against the bill.