President Trump’s ban on Tik Tok, an app owned by the Chinese company, ByteDance, has been saved from its U.S-based demise at the last minute. On Friday, Sept. 18, the Department of Commerce announced that within 48 hours, Tik Tok would be pulled from U.S versions of both android and iPhone app stores. The prohibition of TikTok came as a result of executive orders issued by President Trump on Aug. 6. The Department of Commerce also issued a deadline of November 12 for ByteDance to sell its U.S servers and information to a U.S-based company or actions would be taken to prevent the app from being usable in the United States.
Just a day later, however, Tik Tok’s deal with Oracle, and in a shocking turn of events, Wal-Mart, was approved by Trump and his administration, placing a halt on the ban and saving the app. According to Brian Fung of CNN, the ban has been delayed by one week, allowing the companies to work out the logistics of the deal. “If they get it done, that’s great. If they don’t, that’s okay too,” Trump said after revealing he had given his blessing on the deal.
According to the company’s spokesman, ByteDance will still be a majority owner, thus contradicting previous statements that Oracle and Wal-Mart would have the majority of ownership. The company will be based in Texas, and TikTok’s data storage will move to the Oracle Cloud. The deal, however, does not meet Trump’s original specifications for TikTok. With only a partial sale, ByteDance will still own 80 percent of the company, and despite the U.S data moving to U.S-based servers, China will still be involved.
It remains to be seen what will actually happen, but for now, Tik Tok lives on for a while longer.
Jeri Hensley
Creative Director and Reporter