Is it alive? Is it dead? Right now in the U.S., TikTok appears to be neither and both at the same time.
What happened: TikTok briefly went offline for its 170 million American users over the weekend before resuming service after Donald Trump promised to give the company more time to comply with a law that required it to either sell to an American company or cease operating in the U.S. market.
- Trump claimed that companies wouldn’t face liability for helping TikTok remain online, a signal that he would block the Department of Justice from targeting Google and Apple if they keep TikTok in their app stores.
Why it matters: Trump’s last-minute intervention keeps TikTok alive in its most important market for the time being, but its future remains uncertain.
- Leading Republicans who supported the TikTok ban, including Senator Tom Cotton and House Speaker Mike Johnson, said they expected the law to be enforced — Cotton warned that any company servicing TikTok could face “ruinous liability.”
Bottom line: TikTok is in uncharted terrain and whether it survives in Western markets — and in what form — will be determined by coming political and legal fights.—TS