The saga continues…
As anticipated, U.S. President Donald Trump has as soon as once more signed an govt order that may give TikTok an extra 90 days to discover a U.S.-based accomplice, with the intention to adjust to a regulation which states that each one entities owned by TikTok dad or mum ByteDance are successfully banned within the nation.
As per the White Home press launch:
“The enforcement delay laid out in part 2(a) of Govt 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 People from Overseas Adversary Managed Functions Act, or impose any penalties towards any entity for any noncompliance with the Act.”
So the regulation remains to be in place, however the authorities gained’t implement it, with the Legal professional Basic to offer written assurances to Apple, Google and different suppliers that they gained’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 give you 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 prolong it as soon as extra.
To date, Trump has appeared greater than keen to maintain on signing new govt orders, with the intention to preserve the app working within the U.S., holding off on enforcement of the Senate-approved regulation, in contravention of the lawmaking course of.
However as President, he’s empowered to make that decision, and authorized consultants say that it’s unclear what number of instances he can prolong 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 appear to be the app’s going to get minimize off anytime quickly, regardless of the invoice.
Certainly, come September, will probably 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. Latest 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 appear to be TikTok’s going anyplace both means.
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 truly been dragging on for years, beginning again in 2019, when preliminary authorities bans of the app had been carried out.
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 units, marking the primary indicators of government-level considerations concerning the safety of the app.
- In August 2020, within the midst of the COVID pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned 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 regarded prefer it was near being offered 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 overview of the app, which led to new requires TikTok to be banned attributable to undisclosed nationwide safety considerations.
- In November 2022, the then-head of the FBI advised a Home Homeland Safety Committee listening to that the bureau has “nationwide safety considerations” concerning the U.S. operations of TikTok, noting particularly that “the Chinese language authorities may use it to regulate information assortment on tens of millions 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 bunch of U.S. senators launched a invoice to handle the safety risk 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. information safety necessities.
- In October 2023, U.S. senators known as on TikTok to clarify its determination 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 experiences instructed that TikTok was nonetheless sharing information 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 concerning the information obligations of the corporate.
- In March 2024, the Home of Representatives handed a invoice that might give ByteDance six months to divest the U.S. property 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 risk posed by TikTok
- In April 2024, the U.S. Senate authorised the “Defending People from Overseas Adversary Managed Functions Act,” which “prohibits distributing, sustaining, or offering web internet hosting providers for a overseas adversary managed utility (e.g., TikTok),” amongst different measures. The ultimate vote on the invoice was 79 to 18 in favor.
- Fairly than discover a sell-off, TikTok as a substitute opted to problem the invoice in court docket, and in Could 2024, TikTok launched its authorized case towards the regulation, suggesting that it unfairly targets TikTok and ByteDance, for no purpose outdoors of the “hypothetical risk” that the app poses an precise risk.
- In December 2024, a U.S. appeals court docket rejected TikTok’s bid to disqualify the U.S. authorities’s enforced sell-off invoice,
- In January 2025, the Supreme Court docket upheld the appeals court docket’s determination on the TikTok invoice.
- In his last days in workplace, then-President Joe Biden mentioned 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 govt order that granted TikTok an extra 75 days to work out a U.S. sell-off deal.
- In April 2025, Trump granted TikTok a second 75-day extension through govt order.
Which brings us to at the moment, with TikTok nonetheless clinging to its Trump life-raft within the U.S., and hoping that the entire thing will simply go away someway.
It’s additionally value noting that it’s by no means been clarified what risk, precisely, TikTok poses as the premise for this regulation, 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 information assortment practices, and Chinese language overseas affect operations throughout the app. Which of those is taken into account the larger concern, nonetheless, and to what extent U.S. authorities have detected such, we don’t know, which is one other component that’s added to the continuing confusion.
And on the identical time, TikTok’s nonetheless making an attempt to sway U.S. senators in its favor, even sending a former WNBA participant to interact with Texas legislators in Austin lately, and advocate on its behalf.
I imply, a 6’4” lady is actually a novel messenger, however with the regulation already enacted, there’s not likely something native senators can do both means.
However clearly, TikTok stays assured that it’ll nonetheless be round, and with one other extension of its negotiation interval, it does appear to be it’ll.
