TikTok Could Find an American Lifeline

With TikTok’s US expiration date approaching, there’s a mad rush to eulogize it, purchase it, find alternatives, or extend its American life.

Why It Hits: The dust is far from settled on what TikTok’s fate will be. But whatever happens, social media is definitely entering a new era, which will once again reshape online life.

Behind the Curtain: Brace yourselves — there’s a lot happening.

• China is reportedly discussing the potential of allowing ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to Elon Musk because of his close ties with President-elect Donald Trump. As of now, ByteDance says that’s “pure fiction.”
• Others have expressed a desire to buy it, including a team-up between entrepreneur Frank McCourt and investor Kevin O’Leary and even a jokey offer from MrBeast (but we can see how some investors would pounce at the opportunity for that collab).
• In case it does get banned, a new trend has popped up — “Goodbye to My Chinese Spy,” which pokes fun at the allegations that Beijing uses the app for surveillance.
• Others have started downloading another popular Chinese app, Red Note, to show that they don’t care about national security concerns.
• And just to spice things up some more, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, which would give ByteDance an extra 270 days to divest.

The Future: Woof. We’re exhausted. But the big takeaway is that people love TikTok, which has been arguably the driver of culture over the past five years. For users, that means the entertainment takes precedence over any other issues. For potential buyers, it means the opportunity to make the biggest tech deal in history. And for politicians, it means few want to take the heat for allowing a ban to go through… which will reportedly result in a total shutdown on Sunday.

Grab your popcorn.