President Donald Trump is claiming that privacy and national security issues surrounding TikTok and its Chinese parent firm are greatly exaggerated and that he will continue to postpone the sale of the well-known video-sharing app until a buyer is found.
Unless its parent company, ByteDance, relinquished its majority interest, Congress approved a U.S. ban on TikTok. However, during his second term, Trump has already delayed the deadline three times, and the next one is scheduled for September 17.
Trump told reporters, “We’re going to watch the security concerns,” but he also said, “We have buyers, American-buyers, and we just extend a little bit longer until the complexity of things work out.”
When a nationwide ban that was authorized by Congress and affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court went into force, the platform briefly went black. On January 20, his first day in office, he issued an executive order to extend it. The second occurred in April, when White House officials thought they were getting close to an agreement to spin off TikTok into a new business that would be owned by the United States. However, after China withdrew after Trump announced tariffs, the agreement fell through.
In a lawsuit seeking financial restitution from the state for COVID-19 restrictions initially imposed by then-Governor Roy Cooper that forced bars to close and, in their opinion, treated them unfairly in comparison to restaurants, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Friday in favor of bars and their operators.
The justices’ majority rulings mean that two lawsuits—one brought by a number of bars in North Carolina and their owners, and the other by the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association and other private bars—remain pending and that the state may be ordered to pay them money in future court orders.
