What you need to know
- Last month, a federal court ruling stated that the US Commerce Department cannot ban transactions on TikTok.
- The US Commerce Department confirmed that it will comply with the ruling and will no longer enforce the TikTok shutdown.
- This confirmation arrived on November 12, the original deadline for TikTok to shut down or to sell off its US operations.
We recently reported TikTok's claim that the US government may have forgotten or given up its legal efforts to shut down the massively popular social media platform. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) originally set a November 12 deadline for TikTok to completely shut down or to sell off its US operations.
However, on the day of the deadline, the US Commerce Department officially confirmed that they will no longer enforce the shutting down of TikTok, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This follows last month's federal court ruling which ruled that TikTok's national security concerns are merely hypothetical and that the US Commerce Department is exceeding its power in attempting to block transactions on the platform, effectively shutting it down. The federal judge also commented that contents on TikTok are expressions of "films" and "artworks" that are protected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
In a new statement on November 12, the US Commerce Department said that they will comply with the federal court injunction and that transactions on TikTok "has been enjoined and will not go into effect, pending further legal developments."
With approximately 689 million monthly active users at the moment, TikTok is one of the most popular platforms on smartphones today. After months of bombarding the platform with buyouts, lawsuits, and sanctions, the US government seems to have given up its efforts to try to shut down the platform. Also, however much older generations hate TikTok, it looks like the still-growing platform will live to see many more days to come.
