The bill in question, which President Joe Biden signed Wednesday, gives Chinese parent company ByteDance nine months to divest TikTok or face a ban on app stores to distribute the app in the U.S. The law received strong bipartisan support in the House and a majority Senate vote Tuesday, and is part of broader legislation including military aid for Israel and Ukraine. 'Make no mistake. This is a ban. A ban on TikTok and a ban on you and YOUR voice,' said TikTok CEO Shou Chew in a video posted on the app and other social media platforms. 'Politicians may say otherwise, but don't get confused. Many who sponsored the bill admit that a TikTok ban is their ultimate goal'It's actually ironic because the freedom of expression on TikTok reflects the same American values that make the United States a beacon of freedom. TikTok gives everyday Americans a powerful way to be seen and heard, and that's why so many people have made TikTok a part of their daily lives,' he added. TikTok is based in Los Angeles and Singapore, but it's owned by Chinese technology giant ByteDance. U.S. officials have warned that the app could be leveraged to further the interests of an 'entity of concern.'...

As a TikTok ban gets closer to becoming a reality in the United States, it might be time to start thinking about other platforms to adopt early in case you're left to fill the void left by the popular app at some point in the future. On Wednesday, President Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, fails to sell the app within a year, bringing the possibility of TikTok ban closer than ever before. However, given the one-year timeline, TikTok isn't going to vanish immediately, especially since the company has vowed to fight the bill in court. China is also expected to block a sale because the Chinese government would need to approve the transfer of the app's algorithms. And if ByteDance does sell TikTok, it would likely be without the app's algorithms, which means that if TikTok does avoid a ban, there's a possibility that the app might look different from what millions of Americans have become accustomed to. Given all of these scenarios, it's not too early to start considering other platforms. While there's no 1:1 TikTok replacement, there are some viable options to consider that offer a similar experience. Many companies have spent the last few years building out TikTok clones within their own products, and some of them are worth considering....

President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesn't sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Z's access to political news and information. 'An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds find out information about local elections from TikTok, so my heart is breaking,' Emma Mont, a political content creator, told TechCrunch. According to the Pew Research Center, about a third of American adults between ages 18 and 29 regularly get their news from TikTok. 'I think it's going to have an impact not only on the people who provide information, but also the people who receive that information,' Mont said. 'Part of the reason I make the content I do is that I know there's someone who's watching and this is the first time they're ever gonna learn about Roe v. Wade, or whatever I'm talking about.' For most content creators, the transition away from TikTok is difficult, but not insurmountable ' many full-time creators already cultivate multi-platform followings, rather than depending on one platform, in preparation for this exact kind of worst-case scenario (remember Vine')....

Hurry up! Our Call for Content ends tomorrow, April 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT. If you're a startup expert eager to lead a session at TechCrunch Disrupt on...