Hi Trish, curious if you have any new thoughts on what’s happening with the TikTok ban, I saw stuff about it in the news this week!
Hi there, and welcome back to another week of Ask Trish!
Happy April! I hope you’re having a great start to the month, and for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, that you’re starting to enjoy some warm weather as Spring beckons.
Thank you so much to this week’s question-er for the fantastic question…what is up with the TikTok ban? As y’all will remember, we discussed the TikTok ban earlier this year, when it briefly went into effect–and millions of American took a #TikTokbreak, if even for just a few hours–but then was quickly re-instated by US President Donald Trump, who issued an Executive Order extending the deadline for the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, to sell U.S. operations of the company. But that was a few months ago…what’s happened since then? The answer is unsurprising: a lot. But the details are fascinating…and in this week’s post, we’ll dive into them.
Specifically, I’m going to try a new format in this post–and offer y’all a timeline of the most crucial moments since President Trump’s first Executive Order. I’ll end with some brief thoughts/my take about where things may be headed from here. Sound like a plan? Great. Let’s get into it:
- President Trump signs his first TikTok Executive Order (January 20th, 2025): On the day of his inauguration, President Trump took immediate action on TikTok, signing an executive order to delay implementation of a federal law–passed by Congress–that would have required a ban of the app. The law was paused for 75 days, and the Executive Order gave TikTok’s partners immunity for continuing to work with the company. (The day prior, TikTok had briefly gone dark, but then restored its U.S. service. The move came after President Trump’s assurances that he intended to give the company (and the country) additional time to chart a path forward for TikTok U.S.)
- TikTok returns to the Apple and Google stores (February 2025): Ahead of the ban, to comply with the law, both Apple and Google had pulled TikTok from their stores. In February 2025, the app returned to the Apple Store and Google app stores.
- Right before the April 5th deadline, major American companies and VC expressed interest in purchasing TikTok’s assets (April 2025): President Trump’s first Executive Order pushed the TikTok ban out to April 5th, 2025. In the days immediately preceding that date, several tech companies and even VC firms expressed interest in purchasing TikTok’s assets. Those companies include (among others):
- AppLovin
- Oracle
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Blackstone
- Perplexity
- Microsoft
Most recently, Amazon submitted a very last-minute bid. There were also some more interesting–possibly quite transformative–bids, including one put forward by Frank McCourt and the Project Liberty consortium. The consortium aims to give users greater control and agency over their digital lives, including their data. To make it happen, McCourt said that he would have TikTok run on the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol, or the DSNP. It might sound fancy, but the idea is actually pretty simple…on the DSNP, users would be able to easily port their data from one app to another, so that if they joined TikTok, and didn’t like it, they could easily migrate to another platform on the DSNP, taking their data with them. Pretty cool, right?
- A few days before the deadline, a deal appears to be in place (April 2025): A few days before the April 5th deadline, the Trump administration believed that it had devised a workable deal. Under the terms of the deal, new investors would own 50% of a U.S. TikTok entity, while the Chinese owners would own less than the 20% limit prescribed by U.S. law. Though it was not entirely clear whether China would approve the deal, Beijing had signaled that they approved of the approach.
- Tariffs strike…and the deal falls apart (April 2025): But then…tariffs strike. As I’m sure you’ve seen, in recent weeks, President Trump has issued a slew of tariffs against the United States’ global trading partners, including historical allies. China was particularly hard-hit–as of today, though President Trump has backed down on most tariffs, he’s increased tariffs against China to 125%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, China has not taken well to these tariffs…and a result, refused to let the deal proceed. As reported in the New York Times, the President said: “The report is that we had a deal, pretty much, for TikTok, not a deal but pretty close, and then China changed the deal because of tariffs.”
- President Trump extends the deadline (April 4th, 2025): With no deal in hand, President Trump extended the deadline for a deal, giving TikTok another 75 days to find a new owner.
So, where are things headed from here? It’s honestly hard to say…it seems that as much is riding on tariffs as anything else. Indeed, what is certainly true is that the sale of TikTok will be inextricably caught up with current US-China economic, political, and military tensions. If the US and China are able to find a way to collaborate in 2025–to see eye-to-eye, to find a common ground–it’s likely that that amity will trickle down to a TikTok deal, too. But if the two countries remain at odds with each other, that animosity will likely leave TikTok stuck in the middle. In the meantime, the fate of the app remains uncertain.
I hope that this post was an informative look at what is truly a fascinating deal, one mired in geopolitical contention. Before you go, one last thing: if you have additional questions about this topic, or any other internet/tech-related topic, please feel free to share your thoughts with me here. I’m truly down to explore whatever you might be thinking of–so ask away! Thank you in advance for contributing.
Until next week,
Trish
*The opinions expressed in Ask Trish and by other contributors are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of ConnectSafely. ConnectSafely is dedicated to fostering thoughtful discussions and exploring a broad spectrum of perspectives.