Photo-illustration: Intelligenmer; Photo: Getty Images
On Friday Morning, The Supreme Court Finally Weighed in the Immint Tiktok Ban, which is scheduled for January 19, The Day before Donald Trump Once Again Office. Break decision Was unanimous and, after a public hearing Earlier in the weeks, unurprisis: The Law Stands, and Tiktok’s Deadline Remains Immint.
Setting Aside Questions About The Law’s Merits and The Precedent It Might Set– Not to mention the Path It Might Clear for Other Targeted Media Bans – The tiktok ban resembles (if you squint so hard your eyes are nearly closed) a rare example of the Government Coming Together and Working Across Lines and Branches to get something. A QUICK RECAP: AS TIKTOK GREW, A Small Group of Lawmakers Raised Concerns About Its Connections to the Chinese Government, Citting Intelligence and Credible Media Reports. Soon, President Trump Took Up The Cause and Attempted to Ban the App Via Executive Order Shortly before Leaving Office. The Biden Administration Set Aside Trump’s Approach But Continued Putting Pressure On Tiktok, Citting Most of the Same Concerns. At the Same Time, A Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Workhed Together to Write A Formed Sale Into Law. Their Bill Passed the House 360-58, Joe biden signed it, and republicans and democrats congratulated themes on a jab well Done. This special episode of Schoolhouse rock! wasn’t over yet: here comes the supreme court to revix the law and make quadruple sura iT’s the constitutional.
Wow! Whos the Government Can’t Get Things Done Anymore? Let’s Check in With The Power Players that made this THING HAPPEN. First up we’ve got Donald Trump, who deserves more credit than anyone for getting it off the Ground. Accorting to the Washington Post:
President-ELECT DIVALD Trump is consider anxecutive order once in office that was to be success enforcement of the tiktok ban-o-Sale Law for 60 to 90 days, Buying the Administration to Negotiate a Sale or Alternative Solutions-a Legally Questionable EFFORT to Win a brief thereve Chinese-Awned app now scheduled to be banned on Sunday nationwide…
… “I have a warm spot in my heart for tiktok,” Trump Said Last Month.
Huh. Well, How About All Those Lawmakers Who Reached Across the Aisle and Expended Political Capital?
Ah. Okay, Well, How About The President WHO SIGNED THIS BILL INTO LAW LAST APRIL?
Washington (AP)-President Joe Biden Won’t ENFORCE a ban on the social media app tiktok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on monday, a US officer Said thighsday, leaving it fates in the Hands of President-Electt Donald Trump.
“We’re all trying to find the guy that did this”Washington SEEMS to Be Saying. Only a Few Lonely Voices are Piping Up to Actually Credit. Tom Cotton, an Early Tiktok Antagonist, Is pleased:
Byntedance and it chinese communist masters had nine months to sell tiktok before the Sunday Deadline. The very fact that communist china refuses to permit it Sale reveals exactly what tiktok is: a communist spy app. The supreme Court Correctly rejeCted Tiktok’s Lies and Propaganda Masquerading As Legal Arguments.
Each of these Awkward Contortions Around Tiktok Comes with Its Own Backsory. Trump, Who at One Point Mostly SEEMED AWARE OF TIKTOK AS A PLATOFT MUDE TO troll HIM, HAS SINCE FOUND OUT THAT MANY OF ITS USSERS-WHO REPRESENT A Significant Cross-Section of the American Public- supernat. (There’s Also the fact that republican mega-donor and trump suporter Jeff yass is a major investor in the platform.) And while some likes Lawmakers Backed the tiktok bill on national-secity grounds, many of them. Articulable Reasons: General Fears of “brainwashing“; A democratic instinct to run to the center or recalim turf from trump; full technological illiteratracy; rote synophobia. For its part, the biden administration to the Believe in the postsibilities of a sale. This didn’t happy, and so here we are.
NOBODY WAS PLAYING 4-D CHESS, Here, in Other Words. But there’s the still a chance that someone ends up look like they had a plan all along. Trump Clearly wants to resolve this in a way that that creates an impression that he “Saved” tiktok, but his specific strategy is all unclear and, what ends up being, inherently untested. The Emerging Posteries are divers. Trump Could Delay The Ban, as is provisioned in the law f The Company is Making Clear Progress Toward a Sale; He could signal that he Simply won’t enforce the law; He Could Sign Executive Orders to Attempt to Make the Who Thing Go Away; He COULD EXTRACT Concessions from Tiktok, à la Biden before the laws, or tries to Quarterback a sale to American Owners Himself (to Frank McCourt and Shark tank Kevin? Steve Mnuchin? Elon Musk? Mr. Beast?).
Most if not all of these options are dicey in legal, practical, and balance-of-power terms. The Law DOESN’T JUST DECLARE TIKTOK A “Foreign Adversary Controlled Application,” IT Specific Tobidity Providing “Services to Distribution, MainTain, or Update Such Foreign Adversary Controlled Application… by Means of A Marketplace (Including Ann Mobile Online Application Application Application Store,) “As Well As Providing” Internet hosting Services “for the Company. In Other Words, This Was Designed to Stop Apple and Google from Carrying the App and Tiktok’s Cloud to Stop Working with it. Such Companies have a lot to love and no particular reasson to go out on a limb for tiktok, and a vague promise from Trump not to enforce the law, or a flimsy executive order, Might not the trick. (Tiktok has already prepared to take the app totally offline on Sunday; Meanwhile, with No Apparent Backup Plan AFTER the supreme court, iT”s appeal directly to a receptive trump, who invited the shou chew to be beebind Him at the inaugration.) Trump forcing the sale of tiktok to an allry, meanwhile, is nakedly corrupt as it is sounds: is Beholden to the Chinese Government, which has export controls on some of the tiktok’s underlying Technology and Little incentive to enable a full dovestment. Some Bids, Including McCourt’s, Account for this, suggesting a top-to-bottom rebbuild of the app, which would be a sale so a shutdown by a transfer of brand and ussers.
Trump’s recent statements on tiktok – he “discussed“It with President xi jinping in a” Very good “call – suggest fairly clearly that he was to do what is closest to just unilaterally declaring the law void, while Maybe Gaining Some Leverage Over the Company and the Chinese Government at the Same Time. Actual Law, The Self-Preserving Instincts of Other Tech Giants, Etc.) Actual Matter here, the Next Few Mights Might Be A Mess.
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