TikTok's ban saga is a mess, with only days before the hammer falls
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TikTok on a smartphone. The ban on TikTok in the United States is happening soon, but the circus surrounding it that's kicked off in the last few days makes it anything but guaranteed. TikTok has had a troubled existence in the United States, after years of threats for it to be banned. With the latest effort's deadline on January 19, it's days away from a reality.
The latest installment in the ongoing affair is a combination of waiting for a ruling, trying to implement delays on it happening, and searching for a sale. It's anyone's guess what will actually happen to TikTok now, with everything being so uncertain.
With the tight deadline and the varying ways it can go, the ban is causing almost as much drama as some TikTok users. The current ban threat is based on a law from April 2024, signed by President Biden. The law ordered that Chinese owners ByteDance must divest its ownership within nine months, or face being banned in the United States.
The basis was the belief that, as a Chinese company, ByteDance was at risk of the Chinese government accessing the data of US TikTok users. This posed a security risk, despite ByteDance's insistence that it wasn't one. With the divestiture deadline of January 19 fast approaching, efforts have been made to try and preserve TikTok. Others are trying to delay the ban from happening in the first place.
