AsianFin—The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the country if the social media platform's China-based owner ByteDance doesn't sell its stake within nine months.

The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package, a priority for U.S. President Joe Biden with broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel, fast-tracked the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate.

A standalone bill with a six-month selling deadline was passed in the House in March by an overwhelming bipartisan vote as both Democrats and Republicans voiced national security concerns about the application's owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance.

The approved version of the bill on Saturday would extend the timeframe for TikTok to find a new owner to 270 days, compared to the approximately six months stipulated in previous versions of the legislation. Additionally, the bill grants the White House the authority to prolong this deadline by another 90 days if the president deems that progress has been made towards a sale.

For weeks, TikTok has waged an intense lobbying campaign in a bid to defeat the legislation, arguing it violates its users’ First Amendment rights and threatens small businesses.

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate seven million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually,” TikTok said in a post on X on Wednesday.

TikTok has signaled it could sue to block the House’s divestiture legislation, telling its users in March that it plans to continue fighting, “including (by) exercising our legal rights.” A court challenge over the law would set the stage for a high-stakes battle over Americans’ right to access digital information.