Summary
- The current US administration will not take action to enforce TikTok’s ban on Sunday.
- Joe Biden leaves the White House the day the law goes into effect, and Donald Trump becomes president the next day.
- Trump enforcing the ban could lead to fines on tech companies like Google and Apple if they continue to allow the app on their marketplaces.
After years of ongoing debates and discussions regarding TikTok’s legality in the United States, Sunday, January 19, is supposed to be the day that the notorious social media app gets shut down. We recently reported on the news that TikTok will fully cease operation in the US when the ban goes into effect, going beyond what was previously expected, which was that it would be removed from Google Play and Apple’s App Store. There is a plan in place for TikTok to be rendered useless to US users, and the hope that a successful last-minute appeal or buyer comes to rescue the app is waning. Regardless of what happens over the weekend, outgoing US President Joe Biden has decided to leave any enforcement of the ban in the hands of President-Elect Donald Trump.
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According to ABC News, the US government will not take action to shut down TikTok on Sunday, the day the law is supposed to be put in place. That is because Trump will become the president the following day, January 20, and the ban takes place on a holiday weekend, according to a White House official in their statement to ABC News. While TikTok may have a small additional lifeline now, it is quite miniscule; the law that is set to go in place allows the president to provide a one-time, 90-day extension on the ban under three specific conditions, all of which must show TikTok has made significant progress toward a sale to non-Chinese owners. Any sale does not appear to be close whatsoever.
How the ban works
If Trump decides to enforce the law on day one of his second tenure, then it wouldn’t necessarily be TikTok that gets fined for anything deemed illegal; tech companies that operate with TikTok would be held liable. That means that companies like Google and Apple, both of which own app marketplaces that users can download TikTok from, would face fines of up to $5,000 per user, which would be an excruciatingly high price to pay.
After years and several failed attempts of lawmakers trying to ban the app from operating in the US, this actually appears to be the final days of the app’s existence Stateside. Whether people agree on the looming ban’s rationale or not, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore; the app that was once Musical.ly will be banned in a few days unless ByteDance’s fight against Washington commands another Hail Mary success. Lawmakers’ concerns over TikTok’s alleged Chinese spyware might be the least of their problems, though; users are flocking over to Chinese social media app RedNote in defiance of the law’s principles.
