With a TikTok ban seemingly imminent, TikTok users have spent the last few days running to the Chinese social media app.”“, trying and we cordially say goodbye to our” But it's unlikely that TikTok will actually disappear on January 19th.
Most Supreme Court observers expect the court to uphold a law that would require ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. business or face a ban on Jan. 19. But few seem willing to actually enforce the law, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last year. New President Donald Trump formally asked the Supreme Court said he wanted to “save” the app.
Yesterday, Washington Post that Trump is “considering” signing an executive order shortly after taking office on Jan. 20 “that would suspend legislation to ban or sell TikTok for 60 to 90 days.” Now, NBC News unnamed “White House officials” also say they don't want TikTok banned under their watch.
“The administration has decided to delay implementation of legislation to ban TikTok in the US until the new Trump administration,” the officials said, effectively failing to enforce it during the final 36 hours of President Joe Biden's term.
“Given the timing of the law taking effect over the holiday weekend, the day before the inauguration, its implementation will depend on the next administration,” a White House spokesman said.
Where does that leave TikTok? I have no idea.
Apple and Google are required by law to remove the app from their stores or face billions of dollars in fines. Just because unnamed Biden administration officials are now saying they won't enforce it on exit doesn't mean two generally risk-averse companies will choose to ignore the federal law. Most notably, just a month ago, the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook. their duties to comply with the same law.
Even if Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, TikTok could theoretically still work for the millions of people who have already downloaded it. But in a report published earlier this week in Information indicated what TikTok plans to do on Sunday if the Supreme Court upholds the law. Neither Apple, Google, nor TikTok—all of which are apparently awaiting the Supreme Court's actual decision—have responded to questions or publicly commented on any of these scenarios.
But the desire to remove TikTok from Americans' phones appears to be quickly evaporating. Senator Ed Markey, who voted for the Protecting Americans from Surveilled Apps by Foreign Adversaries Act last year, introduced legislation this week that would extend the app's ban. IN He said the “ban was rushed without sufficient consideration of the profound consequences it would have on the 170 million Americans who use the platform.” Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, who on the bill last April, joined in and called for an extension, as did Representative Ro Khanna (who did not support the original bill).
If TikTok receives any kind of reprieve, several options have been proposed to keep the app online in the US. These include the search for an American buyer, the revival or simply force Trump to instruct Justice Department officials to simply .
If this all seems confusing, that's because it is. Officials from both parties have spent months issuing dire warnings about national security threat posed by TikTok. But now that the ban appears to be just days away, no one wants to be blamed for being the one who overturned it.