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However, in 2020, Donald Trump moved to ban TikTok citing “national security concerns”. Many thought he may be bluffing or assumed the Biden administration would drop the whole act, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the Biden administration saw it through to the finish line. TikTok was offered an ultimatum, sell to a United States entity or be banned from the country on January 19th. TikTok chose to take the ban and shut down the app on the 18th, but less than 24 hours later, TikTok was back up on the 19th. The Chinese-owned social media app noted that Trump had made promises to find a resolution and gave TikTok assurances that it wouldn’t be punished if it went back online.
Now that Donald Trump is officially inaugurated, he has signed an executive order to delay enforcement of the TikTok ban by 75 days. He noted they believe they can maybe make a deal, but suggested imposing tariffs on China if it doesn’t get approved. With that said, there is already major contention over if Trump can even do this. It’s unclear if the President can essentially halt enforcement of a federal law, meaning this executive order may not hold any water in the long term. TikTok could still get unbanned, but if Trump’s order does not supersede the law, it may be shut down again until an American buyer is found.
Similarly, TikTok owner ByteDance recently shut down popular mobile game Marvel Snap. It was a casualty of the TikTok ban and has remained shut down since Saturday, despite TikTok coming back online. It’s expected that Marvel Snap will come back online very soon following the executive order being issued. Nevertheless, if Marvel Snap is subjected to the same scrutiny as TikTok, it may also get shut down again if the executive order does not hold water.
