Congress passed a bill and the president signed it into law. It was upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court. The Chinese were either going to have to sell Tik Tok or have it shut down by U.S. authorities. The law was supposed to take effect on Jan. 20 but President Trump imposed a 90-day extension to see if a deal could be worked out. That 90 days has just expired. There’s no deal. And no genuine transfer of control is possible–the Chinese government does not want Tik Tok’s algorithms and overall computing sophistication to be revealed. They will block any deal that threatens what they see as national security.
That leaves the United States with no choice. It’s time to pull the plug. It is a test of our ability to safeguard our national security and dea monstration that we are a nation where laws still matter.
