Saw this going viral Trump issues executive orders to BAN TikTok and WeChat in 45 days
President Donald Trump has issued executive orders effectively banning Chinese video sharing app TikTok and messaging service WeChat in a dramatic escalation of tensions with Beijing that sent stocks tumbling worldwide overnight.
Using national emergency powers, Trump on Thursday night signed the orders, which give TikTok parent ByteDance 45 days to sell the app, and bar WeChat from the U.S. after the same time period.
Uhh…there is a huge difference between effectively banning something, versus giving a 45-day deadline after which there is a possibility but not guarantee of it being banned.
This is pretty weak. A 45-day ultimatum? Why so long. Once again, people are getting their hopes up over something that will never materialize or will not materialize as expected. It looks like I was right again three days ago in predicting that TikTok would not be blocked in the US, obviously. It is always the same pattern: Trump threatens some dramatic action “TikTok will be banned!” and then prevaricates “well..um..possibly blocked in 45 days if some vague conditions are not met.” My prediction is, TikTok will be sold to Microsoft before the deadline (which isn’t enforceable or binding, will likely be overturned by courts, or just extended or forgotten, as 45 days is an eternity), which is would have happened anyway without Trump’s threats, so all this posturing will be for naught, under the condition maybe the Treasury gets a tiny cut or something else, which will be chocked up as a major ‘win’. Such a long deadline suggests a lack of urgency, and that banning TikTok was never much of a priority or on the table. If spying by China is the main concern, a better approach would have been to shorten the deadline and demand a full code audit of TikTok and require TikTok be fully open-source to certain regulators.