The US House of Representatives has taken a significant step towards potentially banning the popular social media platform TikTok, passing a bill in a decisive 352-65 vote. The legislation, titled the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act," aims to address national security concerns surrounding the app's ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance.

Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita and Rachelle Akuffo break down the details.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: The US House of Representatives passing a bill that could effectively ban the popular social media app TikTok.

- On this vote, the yeas are 352. The nays are 65. 1 present, 2/3 being in the affirmative. The rules are suspended. The bill is passed. And without the objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. OK.

[BANG]

AKIKO FUJITA: Officially named the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the bill requires TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to divest its US operations within 180 days to a buyer that is not from a foreign adversary country. Essentially, a non-China entity is what we're talking about here. Six months is what we're looking at right now.

Already-- let's see-- Beijing has already said it would firmly oppose any forced sale of TikTok. And, you know, Rachelle, we should point out how quickly this has moved. As we know, things don't move very quickly in DC, but last week, the House voting to push forward the bill here, today, the vote coming through.

The final tally here, 352 to 65, so not necessarily a unanimous vote. But we knew that it would go through the House here. The big question is going to be, what happens here in the Senate? Because senators have expressed some skepticism around the language of this bill that has gone through from the House.

Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, her office telling me yesterday that she really wants to find a path forward here that is constitutional and protects civil liberties. And that's certainly going to be the key debate. What does it mean to ban-- effectively ban, we should say, because it's not necessarily a ban-- one specific entity, one specific company? What kind of precedent does that set for other apps, other companies moving forward?

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And it's true. And I think one of the criticisms that was even raised by TikTok executive Michael Beckerman-- he wrote to Congress on Monday, saying that the bill raised serious constitutional concerns. So we'll see how that stands up to legal scrutiny when it comes to the First Amendment protections, but also being rushed through at an unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing.