President Joe Biden signed a law on April 24, 2024, that bans TikTok in the United States unless the company’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, divests itself from the United States within the next 12 months. Bobby Allyn, “President Biden signs law to ban TikTok nationwide unless it is sold”, NPR, April 24, 2024; “Why the U.S. Is Forcing TikTok to Be Sold or Banned”, The New York Times, April 26, 2024. This ban has been in the works for several years, and China has already made efforts to block the divestiture by prohibiting TikTok from transferring its technology to a foreign buyer without explicit permission from the Chinese government. See David E. Sanger, David McCabe, & Erin Griffith, “Oracle Chosen as TikTok’s Tech Partner, as Microsoft’s Bid Is Rejected”, The New York Times (Sept. 13, 2020).

If the Chinese government continues to block the sale and the ban ensues, Americans and American companies will have to ask what happens when the server host permits you to access their computer per their terms of service, but the government—a third party to the relationship—does not.