Another TikTok Ban Is Days Away

Déjà vu, right? We’ve been here before. Last time it was when TikTok disappeared from our lives and devices on 10:30 p.m.

EDT on January 18. And then it was given a reprieve, during which it had to find an American buyer to maintain its access to the U.S.



market.So who’s on the scoreboard to possibly buy TikTok by then? There are a few, from the intriguing to the nonsensical.the contendersOn Friday, January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the December 6, 2024 judgment by the U.

S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which affirmed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. It’d come about because of concerns about the national security risks posed by TikTok’s Chinese ownership.

The very next day, the newly-in-office Trump administration gave ByteDance a 75-day extension by which to find a U.S. buyer for TikTok, confidently saying that it’d happen by the Saturday, April 5 deadline.

Well, guess what? We’re almost at April 5, and nobody has bought TikTok yet.The White House has reiterated that a sale will come by then. There are a few companies in the running, but it’s anybody’s (educated) guess as to which, if any of them, will walk away with the prized app.

The so-called ban does not actually make TikTok illegal in the U.S. However, the law imposes fines of $5,000 per user on hosting companies like Apple, Google, and Oracle.

ByteDance made the decision to pull the app to avoid the fees to their partners.Who’s in the running? YouTuber Mr. Beast has floated the idea quite seriously.

Perplexity AI has spoken at length about its plans for reinvigorating TikTok. Then there’s Oracle, a legacy technology company that provides hosting for many, many businesses.Kevin O’Leary, a familiar face from Shark Tank, is leading a group who’ve expressed interest in buying the beleaguered app, although we haven’t heard much about that plan since January.

For all we know, that means it’s faded from likelihood or consideration.Then there’s the alarming possibility that the White House may involve itself. It shouldn’t be controversial to say that administrations shouldn’t use their positions of influence to wrap themselves up in a private-enterprise deal, but hey, we’re living in an era in which this administration has advertised beans in the Oval Office and Teslas out the White House on two non-consecutive occasions.

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