President Joe Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok, and there are a lot of questions: Is it finally over? When will it be banned? Is there any hope?
First of all, this is not an immediate ban, TikTik will only be banned if its China-based parent company ByteDance fails to sell the app within nine months, setting a deadline of January 19 for a sale, just one day before his term ends. He can decide to extend the deadline by three months if he determines the company is making progress.
However, ByteDance has said it would rather shut down TikTok than sell it, but TikTok is not going anywhere without a fight
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said: “Rest assured – we aren’t going anywhere,” and that the company will exhaust every legal option before considering a sale or leaving the U.S. He also said that the company expects to win a legal challenge to block the legislation.
“The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again,” Chew said.
Even if the company decides to sell, there are few companies that could buy TikTok, as giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta would set off antitrust alarms in both China and the U.S.
For now, the only way to keep TikTok in our phones is to hope that it’s legal team wins the battle.
