Joe Biden Makes Decision On Whether To Ban TikTok Days Before Trump Returns To White House
Chinese company ByteDance has only days left to sell the platform or risk getting banned in the US after allegations that the business is linked to the Chinese government. YouTuber MrBeast even made an offer to buy the platform.
Officials were left concerned that the company had access to over 170 million users in the US. The Justice Department has even said the app is a ‘a national-security threat of immense depth and scale’.
Due to the risk, President Joe Biden had signed a law that demanded the company sell – if not, the app would be banned in the US.
If the app was not sold by the deadline of January 19, it would no longer be available to download to users who don’t already have it.
Users who already had the app would still be able to access it, however, future updates will not work – meaning after time, the app will not be usable.
However, Biden has decided to not enforce the law, according to a US official.
Trump, who has shared his desire to “save” the app is considering executive action that would delay the law for 90 days.
Mike Waltz shared with Fox News: “We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” – “as long as a viable deal is on the table.”
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a fast-tracked case by TikTok changing the law. Legal officials for the app voiced that the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ violates TikTok’s free speech rights under the First Amendment.
Supporters of the ban have argued that Chinese Communist Party currently has access to US users data that can be used against them.