Is time up for TikTok in the US?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TikTok’s future in the US lies in the hands of the Supreme Court, as the justices consider whether the app should be banned over alleged national security concerns. Despite support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the looming ban is unpopular among many everyday Americans - and incoming president Donald Trump.

Sarah, Marianna and Anthony unpick the politics behind the ban and the players who may step in to prevent TikTok shutting its US operation.

HOSTS: • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

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This episode was made by Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, y'all, it's Anthony here in Washington. It's a little after 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
0:04.8	and we recorded an episode earlier on Wednesday before we got the news that Israel and Hamas
0:09.8	had agreed on a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Now we're going to, of course, over the next
0:15.4	few days, find out more about America's role in this. This afternoon, however, Joe Biden celebrated the news at the White House.
0:23.5	He was flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and his Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkett.
0:28.7	This is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring.
0:34.3	Today, Hamas and Israel have agreed to that ceasefire agreement and the whole ending the war.
0:42.4	You know, those of you who have followed the negotiations can attest the road to this deal has not been easy.
0:48.9	I've worked in foreign policy for decades. This is one of the toughest negotiations I've ever
0:53.9	experienced. I've reached this is one of the toughest negotiations I've ever experienced.
0:55.5	And we reached this point because of the pressure that Israel built on the moss backed by
1:01.6	the United States.
1:03.2	Now, you can see from the smile on Biden's face that this is something that he and his diplomats
1:07.3	had been working on for months.
1:09.5	In fact, he noted that the terms of the deal
1:11.8	matched what he first proposed way back in May. Now, Biden probably wishes that he could at least
1:17.9	have gotten this deal done before November's presidential election, but here we are just a few
1:23.2	days from the end of his presidency. And that's also something that Biden acknowledged in saying that
1:28.8	in these final days, both his administration and the incoming Trump team spoke with one voice.
1:35.7	And it will be the Trump team that has to implement the details of this deal for it to be successful.
1:43.0	Trump was actually the one to break the news, believe it or not, before the White House and even
1:47.4	before the Qatari government, which was serving as the intermediaries in the negotiations.
	...

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