The ongoing TikTok saga rumbles on, but a new report claims that we may be close to a resolution. It says US TikTok users will get their own version of the app, which will be owned by an American company.
The latest development happens shortly after we got sight of the letter sent to Apple to persuade the company to return TikTok to the App Store despite it being illegal to do so …
A quick recap
Under a law passed by Congress, TikTok has been banned from the US since January 19.
The law has a clause which permitted the date to be pushed back under certain conditions, but those conditions were not met. Trump instead issued a (probably unlawful) executive order to pause enforcement for 75 days, granting a further 90 days just last month.
Apple didn’t accept Trump’s assurance and kept it out of the App Store, until the company was later guaranteed immunity by the DOJ. We’ve now seen a copy of this letter, which legal scholars continue to say has no validity and could be overturned in future.
Trump repeatedly insisted he would force the sale of the app to an American company, while the Chinese government retorted that it would never permit this.
US TikTok users will get their own app
A paywalled report in The Information claims that a compromise has now been reached.
TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the U.S., ahead of a planned sale of the U.S. app to a group of investors.
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