TikTok's fate uncertain as weekend deadline looms
The popular app is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday
What happened
TikTok is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday under a law that passed with broad bipartisan support last year. The law gave TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, until Jan. 19 to sell the popular app to a U.S. company on national security grounds.
Who said what
"Barring a Supreme Court intervention or some 11th-hour move by the Biden administration," TikTok "plans to go dark in the U.S." at midnight Saturday, The Wall Street Journal said. President Joe Biden does not plan to enforce the ban on his last full day in office, a White House official said Thursday. "Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement" the law.
Donald Trump plans to keep "TikTok from going dark," incoming national security adviser Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) told Fox News Thursday. The president-elect is "considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating," The New York Times said, though it's "unclear" if such an order "would survive legal challenges or persuade the app stores and cloud computing companies to take steps that could expose them to huge penalties" under the 2024 law.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to have a "prime seating location on the dais" at Trump's inauguration on Monday, next to other Big Tech executives, PBS said.
