U.S President, Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law measures to provide aid to Israel, Ukraine And Taiwan, as well as to compel Chinese TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a national ban.
Biden’s official approval ends a six-month saga of tense political battles on Capitol Hill that led to a deadlock on the issue of foreign aid.
“The path to my desk was a difficult path. It should have been easier and it should’ve gotten there sooner,” Biden said Wednesday after signing the bill. “But in the end we did what America always does, we rose to the moment.”
Biden had signaled his intention to sign the bill into law after the House passed the proposal on Saturday. The Senate gave its own green light late Tuesday night in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 79-18 vote, sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The law earmarks roughly $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. It also requires ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months — or a year, if Biden invokes a 90-day extension — or else face a nationwide ban in the U.S.
TikTok has already vowed to fight the measure.
“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” the company wrote in a Wednesday statement on X following Biden’s signing.
“This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans,” the company added in its statement.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video response to the enactment of the TikTok bill, calling it a “disappointing moment” and reiterating the company’s commitment to challenge it.
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