Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- TikTok is not going to be banned within the US as of tomorrow.
- The White House 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 lately talked about as contenders.
Ostensibly, the United States authorities desires to ban TikTok. But you wouldn’t know this primarily based upon the phrases and actions of most of the events concerned. For years, fears round nebulous China-based issues had legislators speaking a few attainable ban, and back in 2024 they really agreed on making this occur, setting a clock ticking down to a deadline by which TikTok would want to discover a new proprietor or depart the US. And now, for the second time, that deadline is being prolonged.
We have been initially a January 19 deadline, and after courts failed to intervene in stopping the pending ban, the White House got here by on the final minute with a 75-day reprieve, implement on January 20. If 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 have a look at your calendar. It’s tomorrow.
Over the previous few days, there’s been numerous speak about probably savior buyers swooping in to buy management over TikTok away from guardian firm ByteDance — most notably, Amazon. But with no deal confirmed, the administration has now introduced another govt order that may lengthen the deadline for 75 extra days.
While that buys TikTok’s legions of followers just a little respiratory room, it’s nonetheless unclear which buyers may nonetheless be within the working to save the app. Earlier at present, ABC News reported that Walmart could possibly 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 price? The approach issues are going, it’s beginning to really feel like these 75-day extensions may as effectively simply proceed in perpetuity.