Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- TikTok is not going to be banned within the US as of tomorrow.
- The White Home has as soon as once more issued an order granting a 75-day extension on the ban.
- It stays to be seen what firm may be eager about shopping for the service, with Amazon and Walmart each not too long ago talked about as contenders.
Ostensibly, the US authorities desires to ban TikTok. However you wouldn’t know this based mostly upon the phrases and actions of most of the events concerned. For years, fears round nebulous China-based issues had legislators speaking a couple of attainable ban, and again in 2024 they really agreed on making this occur, setting a clock ticking right down to a deadline by which TikTok would wish to discover a new proprietor or depart the US. And now, for the second time, that deadline is being prolonged.
We have been initially taking a look at a January 19 deadline, and after courts didn’t intervene in stopping the pending ban, the White Home got here by on the final minute with a 75-day reprieve, enforce on January 20. Should you have been about to choose up your cellphone and ask Google Assistant “what’s 75 days after January 20,” we’ll prevent the difficulty — simply take a look at your calendar. It’s tomorrow.
Over the previous few days, there’s been a lot of discuss probably savior traders swooping in to buy management over TikTok away from mum or dad firm ByteDance — most notably, Amazon. However with no deal confirmed, the administration has now introduced one other government order that may prolong the deadline for 75 extra days.
Whereas that buys TikTok’s legions of followers a bit of respiratory room, it’s nonetheless unclear which traders may nonetheless be within the working to avoid wasting the app. Earlier right now, ABC Information reported that Walmart might be contemplating the acquisition, however that publish has since been taken down.
With this week’s announcement of economy-trashing tariffs already sending the inventory market right into a nostril dive, are firms going to be much more cautious of spending the tens of billions of {dollars} TikTok would value? The way in which issues are going, it’s beginning to really feel like these 75-day extensions may as effectively simply proceed in perpetuity.
