A Look Into TikTok’s New Fate
President Trump’s TikTok deal deadline is steadily approaching this Saturday, April 5. Now the question is, what will TikTok’s fate be?
After many attempts by the U.S. government to ban the platform, it was officially set for a “ban or be sold from ByteDance to a ‘non-foreign adversary country’ company” ruling when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the controversial Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) as constitutional. On January 18, before the proposed deadline, TikTok shut down its U.S. servers, and the ban has technically been in effect since.
THIS CANT BE WE HAD 2 MORE HOURS LEFT AND TIKTOK IS OFFICALLY BANNED, THEY KILLED THEMSELVES pic.twitter.com/bpvhzOzTZX
— iva ✶ met wave to earth on 9.17.23! saw artms 8.21 (@jjennieluvr) January 19, 2025
The next day, however, American users of the platform were greeted with a message from the app.
“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok,” the announcement read.
This message was met with some backlash from users who remembered President Trump being the first U.S. government official to attempt to ban the platform during his first term in 2020.
He has stated throughout his recent presidential campaign that he now wants to save the platform.
In a press conference, he claimed, “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that.”
Although President Trump did not win the youth vote, he did win over the Gen Z male vote.
Despite TikTok’s message on January 19, the fight for TikTok is not over. Legally, President Trump must abide by the Supreme Court ruling to either ban the app or sell it to a “non-foreign adversary country” company. Once he took office, he set up a 75-day extension during which the ban would not take effect and companies like Apple and Samsung would not be punished for hosting the app on their app stores.
The 75 days are slowly ticking to an end with the deadline being this Saturday, yet there is no deal in place.
This week, the president claimed that he is planning to oversee a deal before the deadline approaches. Several companies, including Amazon, have made bids for the app so far. President Trump has also stated potentially order another extension where the ban would not yet take effect. However, the legality of the extension and the current one is disputed.
Announcements should be made in the coming days.
