On November 12, TikTok was supposed to be banned in the United States. So why wasn’t it? Last week, technology publication The Verge reported that TikTok thought the Trump administration forgot to follow through with the ban due to ongoing election disputes. If everything went according to plan, the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) would have to adhere to the plan that President Trump devised. However, there have been some setbacks in terms of banning TikTok. First, there was supposed to be a ban on new downloads of TikTok occurring in September. A judge blocked President Trump’s executive order and allowed TikTok to work on disputing the case. Additionally, there were a plethora of injunctions filed by TikTokers that impeded the ban for the foreseeable future. 

TikTok is owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance. They were allowed to divest the majority stake into an American company up until November 12, which was expected to be between American software company, Oracle, and retailer, Walmart. However, a deal was not finalized in time. The future of TikTok certainly appears to be up in the air, but the full-scale attack from the Trump administration has been diminished due to ongoing litigation.