Lawmakers in the U.S. are threatening to ban TikTok, a popular social media app, unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, agrees to divest its ownership. A bipartisan bill is making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives, giving ByteDance a chance to keep TikTok running in the U.S. if they comply with the divestiture requirement. However, experts warn that the process of selling TikTok's U.S. business may not be as simple as it seems.

Potential buyers for TikTok include big tech companies, but they would likely face intense scrutiny from antitrust regulators. The bill aims to decrease the sale price of TikTok by putting pressure on ByteDance to sell within a 180-day deadline. The bill calls for prohibiting TikTok in the U.S. unless there is a "qualified divestiture" and the new U.S.-based TikTok completely cuts ties with ByteDance.

This move reflects concerns about Chinese authorities potentially accessing data on the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. The bill is unique in that it targets a single company, rather than going through the typical review process by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for national security threats.

This is not the first time TikTok has faced scrutiny in the U.S. In 2020, the Trump administration brokered a deal for U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart to take a stake in TikTok, but the deal fell through for various reasons. President Joe Biden now supports the bill to ban TikTok if ByteDance does not divest, while former President Trump is not in favor of the ban. The future of TikTok in the U.S. remains uncertain as lawmakers and companies navigate this complex situation.