The US Senate approved legislation requiring the Chinese owner of TikTok to sell its shares in the app, reports London's Financial Times.

The Senate's approval of the legislation fires the starting gun for ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid a ban.

TikTok is expected to bring legal action in an effort to block the legislation after a lobbying campaign failed to dent Congressional support for the bill.

President Joe Biden has pledged to sign the US$95 billion package passed by the Senate, which includes the TikTok's provision. Banning TikTok from app stores would mean the app would no longer receive updates, making it increasingly difficult to use as operating systems evolve and eventually rendering it obsolete.