Everyone is suddenly feeling hesitant about banning TikTok

With a TikTok ban looking imminent, TikTok users have spent the past few days escaping to the Chinese social media app.“You try.” “And a sincere greeting and farewell to them.”But it seems increasingly unlikely that TikTok will actually disappear on January 19.

Most Supreme Court observers expect the court to uphold the law requiring ByteDance to sell its TikTok business in the United States or face a ban on January 19. But there appears to be little appetite for enforcing the law, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last year. Incoming President Donald Trump, who has formally asked the Supreme Court to do so he said he wanted to “save” the application.

yesterday, The Washington Post That Trump was “considering” signing an executive order shortly after taking office on January 20, “that would suspend implementation of the law banning or selling TikTok for 60 to 90 days.” now, NBC News That unnamed “White House officials” say they don’t want to ban TikTok while they serve it either.

Where does this leave TikTok? I have no idea.

Under the law, Apple and Google must remove the app from their stores or face billions of dollars in fines. Just because unnamed Biden administration officials have now said they won’t enforce it on their way out the door doesn’t mean the two companies, which are generally risk-averse, will choose to ignore federal law. Especially when the House Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook just a month ago They have an obligation to comply with the same law.

Even if Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, TikTok could still theoretically work for the millions of people who have already downloaded it. But a report released earlier this week in… Information He noted that TikTok planned to do so On Sunday if the Supreme Court upholds the law. Neither Apple, Google, or TikTok — all of whom are awaiting the actual Supreme Court ruling — have responded to questions or commented publicly on any of these scenarios.

But the desire for TikTok to disappear from Americans’ phones appears to be quickly evaporating. Sen. Ed Markey, who voted for the Protecting Americans from Foreign Controlled Apps Act last year, introduced a bill this week that would extend the deadline to ban the app. in “The ban was rushed without adequate consideration of the dire consequences it could have for the 170 million Americans who use the platform,” he said. Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden He was joined in calling for an extension of the bill last April, as did Rep. Ro Khanna (who did not support the original bill).

If TikTok gets some sort of reprieve, a number of options have been floated to keep the app online in the US. These include finding an American buyer, and reviving Or simply have Trump order Justice Department officials to do so .

If all this sounds confusing, that’s because it is. Officials in both parties have spent months issuing dire warnings about this The national security threat posed by TikTok. But, now that the ban is just days away, no one wants to be blamed for being the one who actually lifted it.