Tuesday’s vote clears the way for the bill to be signed into law by President Joe Biden, who has backed the measures, although the legislation is expected to be challenged in the courts.

The US Senate approved on Tuesday legislation that would ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok unless it divests from its China-based parent company.

The TikTok legislation, which would give Chinese company ByteDance nine months to sell the platform, was included as part of a larger $95bn package that provides foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel.

The bill now goes to President Joe Biden, who has backed the measures. He said in a statement immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday, although the legislation is expected to be challenged in the courts.

The Senate voted 79-18 on Tuesday to approve the package, after Republicans in the House of Representatives decided last week to attach the TikTok bill to the foreign aid proposals to help expedite its passage through Congress.

The House passed the package on Saturday in a 360-58 bipartisan vote.

Both Republicans and Democrats have claimed that TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, is a threat to national security. They argue that the platform could be used by Chinese authorities to spy on Americans and manipulate public debate.

“Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok, or any other individual company,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell said. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our US government personnel.”

TikTok has insisted it has not handed over US users’ data to the Chinese government and that it never would.

Many opponents of the TikTok measure argue that the best way to protect US consumers is by implementing a comprehensive federal data privacy law that targets all companies regardless of their origin. They also note the US has not provided public evidence that shows TikTok sharing US user information with China, or that Chinese officials have ever tinkered with its algorithm.

Tuesday’s vote comes just days after the US Congress approved the reauthorisation of a controversial programme that allows the surveillance of US citizens’ communications without a judicial warrant.

TikTok said in a statement Sunday that the bill to force its sales “would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans”.

TikTok is expected to seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the enforcement of the law pending a challenge to its constitutionality.

“At the stage that the bill is signed, we will move to the courts for a legal challenge,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, wrote in a memo sent to employees. “This is the beginning, not the end of this long process.”

A similar bill to force the sale of TikTok passed the House last month but got held up in the Senate.

Last November, a federal judge in Montana blocked a law that would ban TikTok use across the US state after the company and five content creators who use the platform sued. In 2020, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on the grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights.