The clock is still ticking TikTok. You probably noticed that some videos posted on the popular social media site were counting down to December 16, Tuesday this week. This was the date TikTok users expected the latest ban threat to take effect. But that didn’t happen. For the fifth time since the start of his second term in January, President Donald Trump has extended the deadline to ban the site unless its Chinese ownership sells it.
Chinese technology company ByteDance owns TikTok. In 2024, President Joe Biden signed into law the Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act, a bipartisan law that stipulated ByteDance’s sale of the video-sharing platform. This is due to US national security concerns over the Chinese government’s potential access to data through TikTok’s parent company.
ByteDance has not completed the sale of TikTok’s US operations, meaning a ban on the app should have gone into effect. The platform actually went dark in January, a day before January 20, Trump’s inauguration day, but was resurrected following a 75-day extension granted by Trump. The president continued to kick the can down the road. April 4 was the first delay date, followed by June 19 and then December 16.
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The December 16 ban date was rescinded on September 25, when Trump signed an executive order delaying the sale for 120 days, extending the ban until January 23, 2026. As part of the executive order, Trump announced the $14 billion sale of TikTok’s U.S. business arm to a group of technology investors, including Oracle’s chief technology officer, Larry Ellison. The deal requires approval from Chinese authorities.
Larry Ellison isn’t the only Ellison in the news lately. His son, David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Global, recently launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in a bid to surpass the deal it previously made with Netflix.
Messages from Washington continue to portray TikTok as a threat to American privacy and a propaganda tool for China. Beijing has been reluctant to give up control of the app’s powerful algorithm. The video-sharing platform has become a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States on other issues crucial to China, such as tough trade restrictions imposed by Trump.
The TikTok ban is now set for January. Will this happen? It’s anyone’s guess. But if you’re a history student, it’s safe to say that your For page will probably still have cute cat videos and amateur dancing for a while to come.
