Will TikTok Be Banned Again? As Deadline Nears, Trump Says ‘I’d Like to See TikTok Remain Alive’
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor Here we go again: TikTok faces a potential shutdown in the U.S. after Saturday, April 5, if its Chinese parent company doesn’t reach an agreement to sell a controlling interest in the hugely popular video app.
Will TikTok go dark? With just days to go before the deadline set by President Trump, it’s not clear what will happen next. Some background: A federal bill passed last year with bipartisan congressional support and signed into law by President Biden mandated that ByteDance sell a controlling interest in TikTok to non-Chinese owners or face a nationwide ban of the app.
TikTok, after losing an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the divest-or-ban law on First Amendment grounds, shut down the app in the U.S.
on Jan. 18 ahead of the law’s deadline. But TikTok restored service to U.S. users about 14 hours later, citing President Trump’s pledge to not enforce the ban while he sought to broker a solution keeping the app legal.
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