A looming April 5 deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest its holdings or be shut down revives a controversial battle. Free speech advocates and millions of American TikTok users who practically have a codependent relationship with the video-sharing app are facing off with national security concerns and impacts on children’s mental health. Will TikTok stay, or will it go?
The controversy over TikTok was spurred by concerns that the Chinese government may spy on or influence Americans, especially youth. Impressionable young people are susceptible to algorithmic manipulation, and TikTok is arguably a threat to their mental health. Yet free speech concerns are legitimate – if Americans want to view Marxist content, that is their liberty. And the nation is still reeling from revelations that the Biden administration coerced censorship on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
The PAFACAA did not seek to censor as much as end Chinese ownership. An escape hatch exempts TikTok and other platforms from oversight through a “qualified divestiture.” The video-sharing app balked and vowed to shut down the platform in the United States by Jan. 19, 2025, unless the US Supreme Court struck down the law or delayed its effective date. SCOTUS declined to do that (TikTok v. Garland), deferring to Congress on national security grounds.
President Donald Trump sought to shut down TikTok through an executive order (EO) during his first term, which was blocked in court. Ironically, among his first-day EOs in 2025 was one granting the app a 75-day extension to negotiate divestment. Although PAFACAA gives the president authority for a one-time-only 90-day extension, he employed an independent justification requiring 75 days to negotiate a resolution. It appears Trump can now extend relief another full 90 days under the act or perhaps sign an EO to prolong the deadline indefinitely to achieve a sale. With no challenge to his authority on this issue, TikTok has survived.
Trump has suggested an ownership transfer is imminent and that he might consider delaying the deadline again to permit further negotiations. He also stated he would relax tariffs against China to support the sale – perhaps a dubious involvement of government in a private corporate sale. Yet the stakes are high. Americans want to use the platform, and the government wants assurances that TikTok is not harming citizens or national security interests. At one point, discussions focused on listing ByteDance on an American stock exchange, but it was nixed. Trump is rumored to be involved as a mediator with Oracle to form a new company through which ByteDance would own less than the statutory cutoff of 20% of the company. An announcement of the deal may be imminent.
The punk rock band The Clash captured the TikTok battle in its 1981 hit, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Much like a tumultuous romantic relationship, the tussle between China and the United States over TikTok has a similarity to the song’s lyrics: “If I go there will be trouble. If I stay there will be double.” The president is a juggler par excellence in the myriad of deals, lawsuits, and EOs that he keeps spinning like plates in the political air. Americans will soon learn whether TikTok will survive as a platform or come crashing to the ground to the sound of gnashing teeth and weeping by users and investors alike.