The Clock Is Ticking for TikTok

Tick…tick…tick…

With the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday that TikTok must cease its U.S. operations effective January 19th – as per the bill passed by Congress last April and signed into law by Joe Biden – it seems like the video-streaming app’s days are numbered. However, there may be a lifeline or two thrown in its direction.

The first potential lifeline is if TikTok is sold to American investors by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that not only owns the social media platform but also has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The second is a provision in the law that allows the president to delay its implementation for up to 90 days if progress on a sale is being made.

Enter Kevin O’Leary, AKA “Mr. Wonderful”.

O’Leary, a venture capitalist best known for his appearances on Shark Tank, has put together a business consortium that has reportedly made a $20 billion offer for TikTok… and since O’Leary and President Trump are friends, this new development could be a very viable option. Time will tell, but Trump almost certainly will grant O’Leary – and other possible suitors – the allotted three-month window to consummate the deal.

Meanwhile, President-elect Trump may have tipped his hand when he personally invited TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to attend today’s inauguration as his personal guest.

Now for a little background, followed by a little commentary…

ByteDance purchased the popular karaoke app Musical.ly in 2019 and relaunched the service as TikTok. Since then, TikTok has grown exponentially, attracting an estimated 170 million American users or roughly 50% of our country’s population. According to the Pew Research Center, it is also where one-third of America’s young people get their news.

And so, it is no surprise that ByteDance’s close affiliation with the CCP has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill.

"Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company," said Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, who chaired the Senate Commerce Committee at the time the bill mandating the divestiture was passed last year. "Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel."

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton agreed, saying just last week that “TikTok isn’t just another social-media platform. TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda.”

So, yes, there are serious and understandable concerns about TikTok’s operations as well as its effects on America’s youth. How these concerns will be addressed alongside those of free speech advocates is anyone’s guess… and may require a balancing act reminiscent of the Great Wallendas.

Personally, I don’t use TikTok for privacy reasons. Having recently been the victim of identity theft, I don’t need to provide criminals – or the CCP for that matter – even more unfiltered access to my personal information.

Sadly, my concern is not shared by many of my fellow Americans who, as the deadline for the TikTok sale and potential ban approached, started flocking to the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (dubbed "RedNote"), making the Chinese-language app the most downloaded on the Apple App Store last week despite having no English interface.

Did you catch that? A substantial number of Americans are so anxious to access TikTok or its replacement that they are willing to risk their personal information being compromised even though RedNote is currently available only in the Chinese language.

Good grief! Are we really that desperate for entertainment… or to virtually interact with total strangers? Doesn’t forking over your personal information to people who live on the other side of the world – and who are America’s #1 geopolitical enemies – send shivers up anyone’s spine?

Of course, to some people, the alternative is even scarier. They would have to put down their phone, walk outside, and actually chat with their neighbors.

I don’t know about you, but I will take a real in-person, face-to-face conversation over a simulated one anytime, anywhere.