Soon in Washington, D.C., a monumental event may transform American society in ways that are difficult to fathom: TikTok could be banned, banishing millions of (mostly) young people from their favorite social-media platform. This is all thanks to a new law that will ban the app on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell its U.S. business by January 19. But nobody seems to actually want that to happen, including all those TikTok users, outgoing president Joe Biden, or incoming president Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday. With the ban set to come into effect on Sunday, will TikTok get a reprieve? Follow along below for live updates.
In his most recent column, Intelligencer’s John Herrman took a look at the logistics of trying to subvert the TikTok ban once Trump enters office. To put it lightly, it’s complicated:
The law doesn’t just declare TikTok a “foreign adversary controlled application,” it specifically prohibits providing “services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application … by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store)” as well as providing “internet hosting services” for the company. In other words, this was designed to stop Apple and Google from carrying the app and TikTok’s cloud providers to stop working with it. Such companies have a lot to lose and no particular reason to go out on a limb for TikTok, and a vague promise from Trump not to enforce the law, or a flimsy executive order, might not do the trick. (TikTok has already prepared to take the app totally offline on Sunday; meanwhile, with no apparent backup plan after the Supreme Court, it’s appealing directly to a receptive Trump, who invited CEO Shou Chew to sit behind him at the inauguration.)
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Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary finally put a number to his joint offer for TikTok with Frank McCourt after initially holding back the total sum. “Right now, $20 billion’s on the table. Cash,” he told Fox News on Friday.
A Pew Research poll published in September 2024 found that support for a TikTok ban among American adults decreased from 50 percent to 32 percent between March 2023 to August 2024.
Though a possible sale of TikTok still remains up in the air, several people have expressed an interest in buying the app. Businessman Kevin O’Leary of ABC’s Shark Tank fame and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt formed a group earlier this month and issued a proposal to buy TikTok’s American assets for an undisclosed amount.
Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury secretary under Trump, has previously shown interest in purchasing TikTok. James Donaldson, a YouTube star known by the moniker MrBeast, wrote on social media that he would attempt to buy TikTok in order to prevent it from shutting down and later shared a video on the platform claiming that he met with billionaires in connection with a potential bid. Since Donaldson is known for his online stunts, it’s unclear how serious he is about pursuing it.
As the Associated Press notes, it’s not exactly clear what Trump’s options are for protecting TikTok once he takes office:
The law allowed for a 90-day pause in the restrictions on the app if there had been progress toward a sale before it took effect. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the law at the Supreme Court for the Democratic Biden administration, told the justices last week that it’s uncertain whether the prospect of a sale once the law is in effect could trigger a 90-day respite for TikTok.
In the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision, users began to test the waters of a possible TikTok-less future by trying out different apps and one in particular has led the pack. Xiaohongshu, a Chinese-owned app known as “RedNote” in English, has grown in popularity with the Verge reporting that more than 700,000 American users downloaded the app prior to the Court’s ruling.
NBC News reports that TikTok has boosted advertisements for Lemon8, an application also owned by ByteDance, in recent days. Rival social-media apps and websites such as Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat are expected to increase their user base in the wake of a possible ban.
On TikTok, of course. Said Shou Chew:
I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States. … We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a President who truly understands our platform — one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.
Legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in early 2024 gave TikTok a deadline to divest itself from its owner ByteDance or get banned from operating in the United States. The legislation stems from concerns about data safety as well as risks to national security due to the involvement of ByteDance, a Chinese internet company.
The New York Times notes that, while the ban is set to go into effect, accusations of the Chinese government’s intelligence operations being involved in TikTok haven’t been fully substantiated.
Though President-elect Donald Trump has recently shown more of an openness to protecting TikTok from being barred from the country, he attempted a ban during his first term. In 2020, Trump issued an executive order that ordered the app banned due to potential security risks. Five years later, Trump has signaled that he might throw TikTok a lifeline, saying that he will have the final say despite the ban being already on the books.
The how-to TikToks have been spreading, as the New York Times reports:
Hundreds of videos have been posted to TikTok in the last week cataloging how teenagers can continue using the Chinese-owned social media app in the United States even if it is banned, according to a review by The New York Times. One of the most popular methods described is the use of a VPN, or a virtual private network, a type of technology that can mask a user’s location and make it appear as if the person is elsewhere.
“They can’t actually ban TikTok in the U.S. because VPNs are not banned,” Sasha Casey, a TikTok user, said in a video that was liked over 60,000 times. “Use a VPN. And send a picture to Congress while you do it, because that’s what I’ll be doing.” In the comments alongside her video, people posted about how to use a VPN, the best types of VPNs and tutorials on how VPNs have been used in the past.
Another vague promise from the president-elect, via Truth Social:
The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!
Members of Congress have begun to weigh in on the Supreme Court’s decision on the controversial sale-or-ban bill, with opinions varying across the aisle. Republican senator Tom Cotton, a known China hawk, unsurprisingly praised the ruling on social media, denouncing TikTok as a “communist spy app.”
Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia, said he was glad to see the Supreme Court hold up the legality of the sale but emphasized that he doesn’t want to see TikTok ultimately banned.
On whether President-elect Donald Trump should enforce the TikTok ban, Punchbowl News reports that Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “I would think so.”
But the new head of the Senate seemed in favor of a sale. “Hopefully they’ll figure out a way to get it sold,” he said.
Massachusetts senator Ed Markey, who has pushed for an extension of the sale deadline with his fellow Democratic senators Cory Booker and Chris Van Hollen, criticized the Supreme Court’s move. “I am deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the TikTok ban. I am not done fighting to pass my 270 day extension. We need more time,” he wrote on social media.
The response among U.S. politicians to the looming ban they set in motion is not exactly a profile in courage, as Axios notes:
Some of the wafflers say they just want to give ByteDance more time to divest, hoping that its venture backers or suitors like Frank McCourt and Steve Mnuchin can work out a deal.
But if the reason for the ban is really national security — i.e., protecting the data of 170 million Americans — why would you willingly put that at risk for another three or nine months? More importantly, ByteDance will have already seen what happens when the rubber meets the road, and would be emboldened to take that trip again.
On Monday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew has a primo seat at Trump’s inauguration, along with a number of other big tech CEOs who have recently flocked to kiss the president-elect’s ring. Chew will also attend a pre-inaugural victory rally for Trump in D.C. on Sunday and a reception on Saturday for VP-elect J.D. Vance and Trump’s incoming Cabinet.
He spoke with CNN’s Pamela Brown on Friday after the Supreme Court upheld the law set to ban the app:
“It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do,” Trump said. Asked if he would take measures to try and reverse the pending ban, Trump said he’ll “be making the decision.”
“Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”
Trump also confirmed he had a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying they had “a great talk about TikTok and a great talk about many other subjects.”
It’s not clear what kind of decision Trump intends to make, since the law is already a law, but he has previously vowed to “save” the app. Adds CNN:
The law gives the president the option to extend the ban by 90 days, but triggering the extension requires evidence that parties working on purchasing have made significant progress, including binding legal agreements for such a deal — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, hasn’t publicly updated its stance that the app is not for sale.
China has also said it would oppose any sale of TikTok.
On Thursday, the White House indicated it’s not interested in pulling the trigger come Sunday. “Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. 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,” a White House official said in a statement. The White House then reiterated this position after the SCOTUS ruling.
What that means for the looming ban, practically, is not really clear. ByteDance could block the app in the U.S. voluntarily regardless, as the company has said it may “go dark” on Sunday. Or the tech firms like Apple and Google, who are actually on the hook, per the law, could move forward blocking the app themselves in order to avoid the steep $5,000-per-user fines the law imposes on any company that provides services to ByteDance post-ban.
In an 8-1 decision released Friday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law that will automatically ban TikTok if it does not sell its U.S. business by Sunday. So hopes for a SCOTUS save are now officially dashed.
The ruling deferred to Congress’s power, asserting that “Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
This doesn’t seem to be more than a general expression of confidence that everything will work out … somehow:
It’s not clear if this is a harbinger of clear or gray skies ahead for the platform, but Bob Dylan has gone from acoustic to electric to short-form video. Notes the New York Times:
A verified account for the legendary singer-songwriter, Nobel Prize-winner and current subject of a Hollywood biopic appeared on the app this week with a 50-second video montage featuring excerpts from “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “Hurricane.”
Fans were pleased, but surprised to see Dylan show up on what could be the app’s final days, given that a law requires TikTok’s owner, the Chinese company ByteDance, to either sell the app by Sunday or face a ban. “You’ve got 30 seconds king,” one commenter said, receiving more than 9,000 likes. Another said: “bob tiktok is knocking on heaven’s door.”
Dylan, appearing to get in on the joke, posted a second video on Thursday. This time he posted a six-second black-and-white clip of himself appearing at a news conference in the 1960s and saying, “Good God, I must leave right away.”
