The once-frenzied debate over TikTok is ending with a whimper. First, the Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Trump administration’s proposal to require that parent company ByteDance sell the popular video sharing app to American companies is now under review by the Biden administration. The new team is significantly less likely to advocate the maximalist approach toward combating companies likely beholden to the Chinese Communist Party’s demands.
And now, Bloomberg reports that as part of the administration’s review officials are putting a hold on U.S. government’s litigation for a TikTok ban:
The government “plans to conduct an evaluation of the underlying record justifying those prohibitions,” the administration said in a court filing on Wednesday. “A review of the prohibitions at issue here may narrow the issues presented or eliminate the need for this court’s review entirely.”
Since the government’s case remains under review, the Biden team hasn’t officially reversed the previous administration’s position yet, but it’s poised to take an entirely different approach.