The TikTok Deal Doesn’t Seem to Do What It Was Supposed To
The agreement appears bad for users and doesn’t address national security claims that got us here in the first place.
Deal to nowhere.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
As TikTok dances go, this tango has lasted much longer than a typical trend on the viral video app. It has now been 512 days since Congress passed a law to ban the app unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., divested; 244 days since the Supreme Court affirmed the law’s constitutionality; and, most important, 241 days since President Donald Trump decided to ignore all that because, in his own words, he liked the app and thinks it helped him win the election.
As each arbitrarily imposed deadline for a deal approached, there were promises that an agreement was imminent. The latest one — Dec. 16 — was announced by the White House on Tuesday. This time, at least, it looks as though the can-kicking is edging toward an agreement. Given what we know so far, it’s a bum deal for TikTok’s users in the US that falls short of addressing the national security claims that got us here in the first place. The black box for the all-important algorithm remains sealed.