No nationwide TikTok ban as of March 13; post overstates impact of House vote | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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The claim: TikTok was banned on March 13, 2024

A March 13 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims the federal government has prohibited all Americans from using a popular social media platform.

“WOW!! They Really Just Banned TikTok… We Got 6 Months Left To Use It,” states the text in the post.

It was shared more than 50 times in less than a day.

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Our rating: False

There was no ban as of the date of this post. The House of Representatives passed a bill that day that could effectively ban TikTok, but the Senate had not yet voted on the measure and President Joe Biden had not signed it.

TikTok bill passes House, advances to Senate

The issue is rooted in concerns that TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company could provide the Chinese government with data the company collects from its American users or subject them to its propaganda. Congress, the White House and the U.S. armed forces have banned TikTok from government-issued phones, and 39 states have taken similar action to protect state-owned devices.

But the March 13 vote in the House of Representatives did not create a nationwide ban. It simply advanced the legislation to the Senate.

Fact check: TikTok a security threat used by hackers and child-traffickers?

Before the ban described in the post can take effect, the Senate must pass the measure and Biden must sign it into law. As of March 13, neither of those things had happened.

The House approved the bill by a 352 to 65 vote. It would give parent company ByteDance 180 days to sell TikTok to a buyer that satisfies the federal government by guaranteeing the company would no longer control the social media platform or the algorithms that fuel it, The New York Times reported. Failure to do so would allow the Justice Department to take action against companies that allow the app to be downloaded or updated or otherwise work with TikTok.

TikTok, which is immensely popular with teens and young social media users for its short videos and customized song and dance features, has said the data it collects from American users is stored by a U.S.-based entity separate from ByteDance, USA TODAY reported.

USA TODAY also debunked a prior claim that a TikTok ban was enacted in March 2023.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No nationwide TikTok ban as of March 13, contrary to post | Fact check