President Biden Is Trying To Save TikTok

Do I care he voted to ban it? Yes. Am I happy he is trying to save it? Also yes.

Good morning! Did you hear the news? According to new NBC News reporting late last night, President Biden’s team is now exploring options to save TikTok in the United States. Right now, the goal is to ensure that the app does not go dark on Sunday, January 19th, which is the current date of the ban.

An administration official told NBC News that: “Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday.”

Wow. Isn’t that good news?

To me it is. With that being said, it is not final yet, and so, I wanted to take a minute to talk about my plans with this Substack page whether or not TikTok is banned. I’m not leaving Substack and neither should you. In fact, I am going to be heavily investing my time into this platform because this is one of the only platforms that allows me to send you long-form text newsletters like this one. It’s also one of the only tech platforms not owned by a billionaire. I have full editorial control over my work here, and I love it. I hope you do too.

If you want to support my independent journalism, you can by becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the button below:

Now, many people only are saying that President Biden looks hypocritical if he signs a 90-day extension before leaving office to save TikTok. Maybe that’s true. But, many fail to mention in the same breath that Donald Trump actually signed an executive order in 2020 banning TikTok completely, only to turnaround and walk his opposition back during the 2024 election. Policies change. Viewpoints differ. It’s okay if President Biden signs this extension. In fact, it will be welcome by the more than 170 million American users on the platform, many of who, including me, rely on it to be able to pay our monthly bills.

With that, let’s do a quick morning rundown of all the news you may have missed overnight:

• Congressional Republicans are freaked out about the rise of RedNote and are looking to ban the new app.

• Republicans pushed out Congressman Turner as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee because he was not far-right enough.

• The CEO of TikTok will be attending Donald Trump’s inauguration and will be seated at the dais while Trump takes the oath.

• Israel has delayed voting on the ceasefire deal saying that Hamas has reneged on parts of the deal. Once again, a ceasefire is in limbo.

• Jill Biden has expressed frustration and disappointment with Nancy Pelosi over Pelosi’s work to push Biden out of the race in 2024.

As always, stay tuned for more. We have a lot of work to do, and I look forward to helping lead this effort. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the button below to support my continued work:

Thank you for your support.

Aaron