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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies.

A lot of people love Tik-Toc, the video sharing app, and some people love to hate it,

particularly in the United States Congress.

TikTok's parent company is based in China, and there are fears that it could harvest

data about its US users and provide it to the

Chinese government. Or that Tik-Tok's videos and algorithm could be programmed by the Chinese

Communist Party to influence Americans political and cultural views.

Last month in an extraordinary move Congress passed and President Biden signed a bill

requiring a forced sale of Tik-Tok to a non-Chinese buyer.

If the company isn't sold over a specified time period,

the law permits the US government to ban the app in the United States.

Tic-Toc vows to fight the move,

along with free speech advocates who say it would violate the First Amendment.

For some insight into what may happen and what it means,

we turn to Drew Harwell, a technology reporter for the

Washington Post who's been following the issue.

He's part of a team that won a George Polk Award in 2021 on how an Israeli firm Spyware was used to tap the phones of activists,

journalists, and business and political leaders across the globe.

Drew Harwell, welcome back to Fresh Air.

Thank you so much for having me.

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