The TikTok ban has been delayed. Again.
Northeastern University media and computer science experts are not surprised at all, citing the complexity of the deal and its political ramifications.
“The requirement of the law: to either ban or sell an extremely large and complex company — that’s not an easy thing,” says John Wihbey, associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern University.
“It’s about as complex as anything I can imagine in terms of a tech financing deal and the fact that it involves (Chinese President) Xi Jinping and (U.S. President) Donald Trump — it’s not your everyday venture capital investment or private equity sale,” continues Wihbey, author of the forthcoming book “Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech – and What Comes Next.”
“It’s an extremely high-stakes, highly visible, highly political matter.”
Meryl Alper, an associate professor in communication studies at Northeastern, says that “several factors” seem to be at play in delaying the ban.
“The backdrop of ongoing trade talks with China looms large, and the administration may not want the ban to jeopardize those talks,” Alper says. “Alternatively, the administration may want to use a potential ban as leverage.”
In April 2024, former President Joe Biden signed a law to ban TikTok unless the Chinese-owned video-streaming app was sold within a year. Lawmakers and the Biden administration argued that the app’s ownership meant it was beholden to the dictates of the Chinese Communist Party and thus a national security concern.
Since then, Trump has extended the ban three times.
The latest extension was announced Tuesday.
Wihbey calls the extensions “extraordinary.”
“There’s a duly signed law, passed by both houses, by a bipartisan majority, with the president’s signature that is being, if not defied, then at least soft pedaled,” Wihbey says.
Alper agrees, calling the continued delay “deeply concerning.”
“The continued delay is essentially illegal, given the limited congressional extension on a final decision,” Alper says.
That being said…
“I think the law set up some unrealistic expectations,” Wihbey says, noting the complexity of selling a company presumed to be worth billions of dollars as well as enforcing any ban on an app with 170 million users in America.
He also notes the entities involved.
“It is not a trivial transaction,” Wihbey says. “Then you throw in the CCP and the Justice Department and US-China relations and it’s definitely 3-D chess.”
Christo Wilson, professor and associate dean of undergraduate programs at Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, says the delay is “all about politics.”
“Trump thrives on situations where he personally gets to control things, and this fits the bill,” Wilson says. “He can please his base by ‘saving’ their favorite app, and he keeps TikTok in play as a lever in trade negotiations with China. In contrast, if he wants to cause chaos and drive news cycles, all he has to do is intimate that he might enforce the ban.”
So, what does this mean for your daily intake of cat videos?
Expect more of the same … both politically and technologically.
“Technology has very little to do with the situation,” Wilson says. “The fundamental situation remains the same: unless TikTok was completely divested by ByteDance, there is no way to meaningfully separate TikTok’s operations and data from its parent.”
“I won’t be surprised if it gets extended again,” Wihbey adds.