Are we really going to ban TikTok?

Image: Alex Parkin / The VergeThe TikTok ban might be for real this time. Nearly four years after the first attempt to get the ByteDance-owned company either sold or barred from the US, a new bill is flying through...

Mar 15, 2024 - 21:02

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On The Vergecast: what we do and don’t know about TikTok, why all the other apps are trying to be TikTok, and the photo scandal rocking the royals.

By David Pierce, editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

Mar 15, 2024, 2:13 PM UTC

An illustration depicting TikTok over the Vergecast team.

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

The TikTok ban might be for real this time. Nearly four years after the first attempt to get the ByteDance-owned company either sold or barred from the US, a new bill is flying through congressional votes, and President Joe Biden has already said he’ll sign it if it comes to his desk.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about what’s inside the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (everybody calls it PAFFACAA, just kidding; nobody calls it that, everybody just calls it “The TikTok Ban”) and what we know about TikTok’s connection to China. The answer: not a lot! But four years in, Congress seems more convinced than ever, and that might mean something. Or it might not. We spend a long time debating what that means.

After that, we discuss who might buy TikTok, whether TikTok is even for sale, and what companies like Meta, Snap, and X stand to gain from a TikTok ban. And finally, we try to decide which outcome is the most likely: a TikTok ban, a TikTok sale, or nothing at all?

Once we dispense with the TikTok news, we talk about YouTube’s new redesign for TVs and Spotify’s push into music videos — which are both, in a way, actually stories about TikTok. Neil Young makes a surprise reappearance on the show, and then it’s time for a lightning round. Brought to you by your favorite new band, Algorithmic Warfare.

If you want to read more on everything we covered in this show (there’s a lot!), here are a few links to get you started, first on TikTok:

And on the streaming news of the week:

And in the lightning round:

We’re really curious to hear what you think about the TikTok ban in particular. As always, you can get in touch with us by emailing vergecast@theverge.com, calling the Vergecast Hotline at +1-866-VERGE11, or hitting us up on Threads. Or TikTok! For now.