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The House voted on Wednesday in favor of a bill to require TikTok to sever its connection with parent company ByteDance or face a ban, moving the legislation forward with surprising speed. President Joe Biden has already said that he would support<\/a> the legislation, but TikTok faces an uncertain fate as the bill heads to the Senate.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s supporters decline to describe it as a \u201cban,\u201d but if passed it would create two possible outcomes. In one scenario, TikTok strikes a deal to split with its Chinese ownership within six months and continues to operate in the U.S. under that arrangement. In the more dire outcome, ByteDance refuses to sell TikTok and it becomes illegal for software marketplaces like Apple\u2019s App Store and Google Play to distribute the software in the U.S.<\/p>\n The plan to force ByteDance to sell TikTok began during the Trump administration as an executive order. Oracle and Microsoft both had their hats in the ring at the time, but ultimately the plot to force a sale unraveled as former President Donald Trump left the White House. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later described<\/a> the whole ordeal as the \u201cstrangest thing I\u2019ve ever worked on.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has since changed his tune. While maintaining that TikTok still poses a national security risk, Trump now opposes<\/a> the ban, at least in part because Facebook stands to benefit from seeing its biggest competitor regulated. \u201cWithout TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n Other Republican legislators echoed Trump\u2019s new stance. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) remarked that the bill \u201ccould also be named the Facebook Protection and Enhancement Act.\u201d<\/p>\n In opposition, Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-IL) spoke about the impact that the bill could have on creatives and small businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cCreatives, artists, content creators and businesses in my district will get caught in the crossfire of this bill and deserve better than federal overreach as a substitute for a thoughtful and incisive solution,\u201d Kamlager-Dove said on the House floor.<\/p>\n This is similar to the sentiments that TikTok itself has been pushing since last year, when it brought content creators<\/a> to lobby in the Capitol to oppose a ban.<\/p>\n Regardless of how Wednesday\u2019s vote played out in the House, the bill\u2019s fate in the Senate is yet to be determined. While many of his peers have yet to weigh in, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has stated his opposition<\/a> to a Senate version of the bill. \u201cI don\u2019t think Congress should be trying to take away the First Amendment rights of [170] million Americans,\u201d Paul told the Washington Post.<\/p>\n With an election around the corner, it\u2019s very possible that the Senate wouldn\u2019t have the appetite for going after TikTok \u2014 even with President Biden backing the legislation. Without a companion bill in the Senate, the House\u2019s efforts would be doomed to stall out.<\/p>\n China has also previously stated that it would oppose a forced sale of TikTok, which is well within its rights after an update to the country\u2019s export rules<\/a> in late 2020.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s quick progress out of committee last week to a full House vote appears to have caught TikTok by surprise. The company scrambled to rally its 170 million U.S. users to its side, sending a message directly through the app that urged them to call their representatives. TikTok CEO Shou Chew also headed to Capitol Hill to drum up opposition<\/a> to the bill before Wednesday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n