The conclusion to the TikTok debacle is at hand, with President Donald Trump having recently claimed that he has some “very wealthy people”
ready to buy TikTok. With that said, the solution seems to be a separate new app for American users, before the platform’s sale of its U.S. operations to a non-Chinese entity.According to a
report (
subscription required), the States will get a different TikTok app on September 5. The current app will continue to work until March of next year, but new users will have to download the second app to access TikTok in the United States. Once the current app is taken offline, the U.S. will have a completely separate portal to TikTok compared to the rest of the world.
TikTok has often been labeled a threat to national security, as well as a platform for Chinese propaganda. As such, it was ruled that the app would have to sell its American operations to a non-Chinese entity or face a ban from the country. President Trump has extended this deadline three times, and now seems convinced that a deal is nigh.
A separate app will get around a lot of the concerns that the U.S. administration has, though it’s a pretty ironic end to the whole ordeal. This time, the U.S. will have a separate app for a global platform, something that people have often criticized China for, which pushes local alternatives to popular international apps.
If I had to guess, the new app will barely be any different. Though, there might be a surge in content that aligns with the politics of the current administration. For the average user, I doubt anything will change beyond having to download a new app.Of course, this is all considering that this group of “very wealthy people” actually does purchase the platform’s American operations. Such claims have been made before, but have gone nowhere. If TikTok really is making a separate app, however, then it seems like this might finally be the real deal.Which means that, much to the dismay of Instagram, TikTok will continue to operate Stateside.
