Over 150 million Americans could be left without access to TikTok in a matter of hours.

The United States Senate has passed a bill that aims to strong-arm parent company ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing, to sell the social media sensation to a non-Chinese entity within 165 days — or face a total ban from app stores and web hosts in the United States.

Spurred by widespread concern amongst US lawmakers that China could access data or surveil American citizens who use the social media app, the bill was passed by the United States House of Representatives on Saturday and U.S. President Joe Biden has said he will sign it into law later today (Wednesday April 24).

"For years we've allowed the Chinese Communist party to control one of the most popular apps in America that was dangerously shortsighted," said Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. "A new law is going to require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good move for America."

TikTok says it never stores US user information on servers in China.

The four-year battle over the future of TikTok, which is used by 170 million people in the United States, is just one front in a war over the internet and technology between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Apple revealed Beijing had ordered it to remove Meta's WhatsApp and Threads services from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns.

TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds and TikTok users are also expected to again take legal action. A U.S. judge in Montana in November blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free speech grounds.

A spokesperson for TikTok said: "This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban. We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service."US President Joe Biden has already confirmed that he'll sign the bill into law.

The legislation does leave a small loop-hole for TikTok — the company could swerve a ban in the United States if it splits from its Chinese parent ByteDance and becomes a standalone company.

The controversial legislation would classify TikTok as a national security risk for American citizens, allowing the US government to block the popular social media service from app stores and web browsers for every citizen. Congressmen Mike Gallagher, a Republican, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat, introduced the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act last week.

ByteDance is a Chinese technology company with its headquarters in Beijing.

The law accuses the firm, which was started back in 2012 but didn't launch TikTok until September 2017, of being backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Like many Chinese corporations, ByteDance has an internal Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee, which sees Vice President Zhang Fuping serving as ByteDance's CCP Committee Secretary.

“This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users. America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” Congressmen Mike Gallagher said in a press release.

Raja Krishnamoorthi says the idea behind the draft legislation is to “protect American social media users […] from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponise their personal data against them."

TikTok has blasted the proposed legislation, stating that it hurts free speech and the 5 million businesses that rely on the social media app every day. It has urged its users to call their representatives in Congress to voice opposition against the bill.

According to The New York Times, some Congressional phone lines have been overwhelmed due to the vast number of impassioned TiKTok users trying to voice their concerns. Some of the callers appeared to be teenagers, the article claims.

TikTok has long had a strained relationship with the US government. Donald Trump attempted to ban the app in the United States back in 2020, while Montana tried to impose a state-level ban in 2023.

Courts stepped-in and blocked both of those attempts, stating it violated the First Amendment. President Trump has since reversed his stance and now opposes a ban on TikTok.

ByteDance has previously confirmed that it has over 150 million users in the United States of America. In a press release published last year, it confirmed: "TikTok is a special place where Americans come together to learn, be entertained, grow their business, as they continue to create, discover and connect with a broader global community.

"Today, we're celebrating our mission as we continue to inspire creativity and bring joy across the United States for more than 150 million people. We're honoured to be a home for our immensely diverse community in the United States, made up of nearly half the country's population, including book lovers, foodies, families, emerging artists and so much more.

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"This milestone would not have been possible without the hard work and unwavering commitment of almost 7,000 TikTok employees in the US, as well as our incredible community in the country and around the world."

The draft Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act could not only be used to block TikTok from web browsers and app stores for every US citizen. It could be used to block any social media apps run by foreign bodies that US lawmakers determine “pose a national security threat”.

This could pave the way for other applications to face the same threat as ByteDance — sell the asset to another company or face a full ban in one of the biggest markets on the planet.