Explainer: Why the US government is trying to ban TikTok

Tiktok logo

Chinese social networking service TikTok's logo on a smartphone screen. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

Photo credit: Pool

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Saturday that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about a year to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a nationwide ban. It now moves to the Senate where it could be taken up for a vote in the coming days.

Here is a look at the effort to ban the app, its chances in the US Senate and what that would actually mean.