WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted

late Tuesday to send legislation to President Joe Biden that

would require Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the popular

short video app's U.S. assets within about nine months or face a

ban.

The measure, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on

Saturday, has been driven by concerns that China could access

Americans' data or surveil them with the app and Biden has said

he will sign it into law.

"For years we've allowed the Chinese Communist party to

control one of the most popular apps in America that was

dangerously shortsighted," said Senator Marco Rubio, the top

Republican on the Intelligence Committee. "A new law is going to

require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good move

for America."

TikTok, which says it has not shared and would not share

U.S. user data with the Chinese government, has argued the law

amounts to a ban that would violate the U.S. free speech rights

of its users.

The company did not immediately comment but over the

weekend, it told its employees that it would quickly go to court

to try to block the legislation.

"We'll continue to fight, as this legislation is a clear

violation of the First Amendment rights of the 170 million

Americans on TikTok... This is the beginning, not the end of

this long process," TikTok told employees on Saturday in an

email seen by Reuters.

The Senate voted 79 to 18 in favor of the bill.