April 24 (UPI) — Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will get military aid while TikTok will get a new owner in the United States or or be banned in the nation after President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion aid package bill into law Wednesday.
The measure, H.R. 815, also called the National Security Supplemental, provides about $60 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region to enhance security, Politico, CNN and CNBC reported.
Biden remarked that the aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will make the world and the United States safer while continuing the nation’s global leadership.
“It gives vital support to America’s partners … so they can defend themselves against threats to their sovereignty and to the lives and freedom of their citizens,” Biden said. “And it’s an investment in our own security, because … when our allies are stronger, we are stronger.”
He said the support for Ukraine helps to counter support in the form of ballistic missiles, artillery shells, drones and other components and the “know-how” to use them that Russia is getting from Iran, China and North Korea.
“With all this support, Russia has ramped up its airstrikes against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure [and] rained down munitions on … brave Ukrainians defending their homeland,” Biden said. “And now Americans are going to send Ukraine the supplies they need to keep them in the fight.”
H.R. 815 also gives the China-based ByteDance company nine months to sell the popular social media app TikTok or see it banned in the United States. Biden also has an option to extend TikTok’s deadline by 90 days.
TikTok owners vowed to fight the force sale of the social media app that about half of the U.S. population uses, although the measure doesn’t affect ByteDance’s ownership interest outside of the nation’s borders.
“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” TikTok officials said in a statement posted on X. “This ban would devastate 7 million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
TikTok officials said they invested billions of dollars to protect user data and prevent “outside influence and manipulation” of content on the social media platform.
The deadline to sell TikTok or be banned in the United States enables the app to continue through the Nov. 5 general election. Biden’s campaign staff said it will continue using TikTok through the general election.
