TikTok as the countdown to ban is extended again

While the US administration's decision to extend the deadline for its proposed ban on TikTok by another 75 days has temporarily spared its 170 million users in the United States from losing access to their much-loved app, it fails to address the fundamental absurdity of the ban itself. The US administration's crusade against TikTok, a platform embraced by small businesses, creators and ordinary citizens alike, has never been about national security as claimed. Instead, it reflects a disturbing willingness to sacrifice free-market principles and digital freedom at the altar of geopolitical posturing.

The timeline of this saga reveals Washington's political opportunism. In April 2024, then US president Joe Biden gave TikTok an ultimatum to either sell its US operations to a US company or face a ban by Jan 19, on the grounds that it has a Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Never mind the transparency TikTok exercises, including saving user data on domestic servers in the US and submitting itself to third-party audits.

When the current administration assumed office, it extended the deadline till April 5, only to push it again till mid-June. These extensions suggest even the architects of the ban recognize its impracticality, but refuse to abandon the ban entirely.