Trump, who promised to save TikTok, threatens to shut down TikTok
Donald Trump vowed to save TikTok before taking office, claiming only he could make a deal to keep the app operational in the US despite national security concerns.
But then, he put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the deal, and after months of negotiations, the US still doesn't seem to have found terms for a sale that the Chinese government is willing to approve. Now, Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed that if China won't approve the latest version of the deal—which could result in a buggy version of TikTok made just for the US—the administration is willing to shut down TikTok. And soon.
On Thursday, Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok would stop operating in the US if China and TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up, along with control over TikTok's algorithm.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/tiktok-will-shut-down-soon-if-china-wont-agree-to-trumps-deal-official-says/Open linkView original on quokk.au
4 replies
Epstein though ...
Um, he initiated the ban in his first term.
So he wanted to ban it.
Then vowed to save it before his second term.
And is now going to ban it again.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%E2%80%93TikTok_controversy
Where's that buyer he said he'd announce?
As much as people are raging on about the Epstein files, I can get behind the banning of short form media platforms like tiktok.