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The shutdown of TikTok in the United States is still looming as President-elect Donald Trump has wanted to delay a potential ban on it.
Trump, who previously wanted the ban, has come around to TikTok staying in the country, so long as it's not operated by a Chinese company. A law that requires TikTok to divest of it's Chinese ownership has passed. The social media video company argued that the Supreme Court should strike down a law that could lead to a ban in the U.S. by Jan. 19, a day before Trump is inaugurated.
There's doubts that the Trump administration can find a "political solution" to all of this.
Jeff McCall, a professor of media studies at Depauw University, compared the popular social media and video app to a weed in America's social media garden.
"TikTok operates with a very decided lack of transparency and it's users really have no idea what's going on with their private data," McCall said.
The app has already acted in bad conduct by stealing information and not protecting people's data. That has been the center of the issue surrounding TikTok's presence in the U.S.
McCall says the Supreme Court will have to rule on the constitutional and first amendment matters on this law.
"The issue would be that he (Trump) may should look at a resolution after the Supreme Court has made their decision on ownership," McCall explained. "I think the real key here is whether or not you want a Chinese-based parent company to be managing such a huge footprint in the United States social media."
McCall doesn't believe Trump can pull off a political resolution to this matter now that it is in the hands of the court.
"Trump wants to manage everything and have the Biden administration be a forgotten thing but I'm not sure delaying a decision by the Supreme Court actually serves anbody's purpose at this point," said McCall.
TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users globally, with over 150 million active users in the United States. Trump gained massive popularity with young voters by using TikTok to post things during his presidential campaign.
There are also no American apps in China but there are multiple Chinese apps being used in the U.S.