Good news for all you TikTok enthusiasts: You won’t have to record your emotional farewell dance just yet! Joe Biden’s administration has decided to skip playing the TikTok police and instead toss the whole mess back to Trump’s crew, who may or may not remember they were in charge of it in the first place.
Here’s the deal: Last year, someone in Washington thought it’d be fun to pass a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to either hand over the app to a non-Chinese company by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. Basically, it’s like that kid on the playground who yells, “Give me your ball or I’m telling the teacher!” Only this time, the ball is a wildly popular app, and the teacher is… also kind of unclear.
At first, we thought this ban meant you’d still be able to scroll through TikTok if you already had it downloaded. But then a terrifying rumor emerged: What if TikTok got Thanos-snapped entirely, leaving us with no renegade dances or inexplicably satisfying cleaning videos? Tragic.
Thankfully, the Biden administration has decided that instead of ruining everyone’s weekend, they’ll just leave it for someone else to deal with. Priorities, right? A White House official casually told NBC News, “Yeah, um, so it’s, like, a holiday weekend? And the inauguration is Monday? We’re gonna let the next folks handle it. Peace out!” (Paraphrased, but you get the idea.)
And here’s the plot twist: Trump, despite his previous bluster about TikTok being a “national security threat,” has apparently become TikTok’s unlikely savior. Yes, the same guy who thought banning TikTok was a great idea might just decide to give it a stay of execution. Imagine the press conference: “I saved TikTok. Everyone loves me. Huge win.”
So, TikTokers, you can relax for now. Your duet dreams and “For You” page scrolling sessions are safe—for the moment. But keep your ring lights handy. You never know when the drama might reignite!