The saga continues…
As anticipated, U.S. President Donald Trump has as soon as once more signed an government order that can give TikTok an extra 90 days to discover a U.S.-based accomplice, to be able to adjust to a legislation which states that each one entities owned by TikTok mother or father ByteDance are successfully banned within the nation.
As per the White Home press launch:
“The enforcement delay laid out in part 2(a) of Government Order 14166 of January 20, 2025, is additional prolonged till September 17, 2025. Throughout this era, the Division of Justice shall take no motion to implement the Defending Individuals from Overseas Adversary Managed Functions Act, or impose any penalties in opposition to any entity for any noncompliance with the Act.”
So the legislation remains to be in place, however the authorities received’t implement it, with the Lawyer Common to offer written assurances to Apple, Google and different suppliers that they received’t get fined for internet hosting TikTok.
TikTok has welcomed one more extension:
“We’re grateful for President Trump’s management and help in guaranteeing that TikTok continues to be obtainable for greater than 170 million American customers and seven.5 million U.S. companies that depend on the platform as we proceed to work with Vice President Vance’s Workplace.”
Because the White Home launch notes, the extension will now give TikTok until September seventeenth to provide you with a U.S. sale association, or it’ll as soon as once more face a full ban within the U.S.
Or, possibly, Trump will simply lengthen it as soon as extra.
To date, Trump has appeared greater than prepared to maintain on signing new government orders, to be able to hold the app operating within the U.S., holding off on enforcement of the Senate-approved legislation, in contravention of the lawmaking course of.
However as President, he’s empowered to make that decision, and authorized specialists say that it’s unclear what number of occasions he can lengthen the deadline. And with Trump noting that he has “a heat spot” in his coronary heart for the app, which he’s additionally claimed helped him win the 2024 U.S. election by maximizing his reference to younger voters, it doesn’t look like the app’s going to get reduce off anytime quickly, regardless of the invoice.
Certainly, come September, it is going to be over 250 days since TikTok was formally banned within the U.S., and but, it’ll nonetheless be working within the area as regular. Current U.S.-China commerce preparations could assist to ease tensions on this entrance, and facilitate an eventual deal. However actually, given what we’ve seen to date, it doesn’t look like TikTok’s going anyplace both approach.
Which isn’t fairly the peace of mind and safety that creators and types utilizing the platform ideally want.
However for now, the nice TikTok-U.S. saga continues.
The entire ordeal has really been dragging on for years, beginning again in 2019, when preliminary authorities bans of the app had been applied.
As a contextual refresher, right here’s a full timeline of the saga:
- As famous, all through 2019, amid rising concern about TikTok’s potential ties to the Chinese language authorities, varied U.S. officers introduced bans and restrictions on the app on government-owned gadgets, marking the primary indicators of government-level considerations in regards to the safety of the app.
- In August 2020, within the midst of the COVID pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he can be shifting to ban TikTok within the U.S. totally, so as, he initially claimed, to punish China for the unfold of the virus.
- After the U.S. authorities oversaw varied bids for the app, TikTok appeared prefer it was near being bought to Oracle in September 2020, however following his inauguration in February 2021, incoming U.S. President Joe Biden deserted the TikTok sell-off push, citing irregularities and inconsistencies within the course of.
- The Biden Administration then initiated a full safety assessment of the app, which led to new requires TikTok to be banned as a result of undisclosed nationwide safety considerations.
- In November 2022, the then-head of the FBI instructed a Home Homeland Safety Committee listening to that the bureau has “nationwide safety considerations” in regards to the U.S. operations of TikTok, noting particularly that “the Chinese language authorities might use it to manage knowledge assortment on hundreds of thousands of customers or management the advice algorithm, which may very well be used for affect operations in the event that they so selected.”
- In March 2023, a gaggle of U.S. senators launched a invoice to handle the safety menace posed by TikTok. In the identical month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared earlier than the Home Committee on Power and Commerce to plead the case that TikTok is complying with U.S. knowledge safety necessities.
- In October 2023, U.S. senators known as on TikTok to clarify its choice to position Chinese language Bytedance employees into key roles at TikTok, seemingly contradicting its claims of independence.
- In November 2023, U.S. senators as soon as once more raised considerations about TikTok amid allegations that it was selling pro-Palestinian content material.
- In January 2024, media studies urged that TikTok was nonetheless sharing knowledge with China, regardless of the corporate’s denials.
- In February 2024, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew once more appeared earlier than the U.S. Senate, the place he confronted extra questions in regards to the knowledge obligations of the corporate.
- In March 2024, the Home of Representatives handed a invoice that will give ByteDance six months to divest the U.S. belongings of the short-video app, or face a ban. The invoice handed 352-65 in a bipartisan vote.
- Later that month, nationwide safety officers held closed-door briefings with U.S. senators to focus on the menace posed by TikTok
- In April 2024, the U.S. Senate permitted the “Defending Individuals from Overseas Adversary Managed Functions Act,” which “prohibits distributing, sustaining, or offering web internet hosting providers for a overseas adversary managed software (e.g., TikTok),” amongst different measures. The ultimate vote on the invoice was 79 to 18 in favor.
- Quite than discover a sell-off, TikTok as an alternative opted to problem the invoice in courtroom, and in Might 2024, TikTok launched its authorized case in opposition to the legislation, suggesting that it unfairly targets TikTok and ByteDance, for no motive exterior of the “hypothetical risk” that the app poses an precise menace.
- In December 2024, a U.S. appeals courtroom rejected TikTok’s bid to disqualify the U.S. authorities’s enforced sell-off invoice,
- In January 2025, the Supreme Courtroom upheld the appeals courtroom’s choice on the TikTok invoice.
- In his last days in workplace, then-President Joe Biden stated that he wouldn’t look to implement the TikTok ban on January nineteenth, 2025, when it went into impact, leaving it to incoming President Trump to motion as he noticed match.
- TikTok went offline on January nineteenth, amid uncertainty about potential enforcement. The app was down within the U.S. for roughly 20 hours.
- Following his inauguration as President, Donald Trump issued an government order that granted TikTok a further 75 days to work out a U.S. sell-off deal.
- In April 2025, Trump granted TikTok a second 75-day extension by way of government order.
Which brings us to as we speak, with TikTok nonetheless clinging to its Trump life-raft within the U.S., and hoping that the entire thing will simply go away in some way.
It’s additionally price noting that it’s by no means been clarified what menace, precisely, TikTok poses as the idea for this legislation, as the total shows proven to senators by cybersecurity officers have been withheld from the general public. The three areas of concern are the hyperlinks between TikTok and the Chinese language authorities, TikTok’s knowledge assortment practices, and Chinese language overseas affect operations throughout the app. Which of those is taken into account the larger concern, nevertheless, and to what extent U.S. authorities have detected such, we don’t know, which is one other ingredient that’s added to the continuing confusion.
And on the similar time, TikTok’s nonetheless attempting to sway U.S. senators in its favor, even sending a former WNBA participant to have interaction with Texas legislators in Austin lately, and advocate on its behalf.
I imply, a 6’4” lady is definitely a novel messenger, however with the legislation already enacted, there’s probably not something native senators can do both approach.
However clearly, TikTok stays assured that it’ll nonetheless be round, and with one other extension of its negotiation interval, it does look like it is going to.
