The Discourse | TikTok Ban: The Final Loop?

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TikTok—which was supposed to be banned again on Wednesday but, again, isn’t—may be legal once more. The Trump administration says it’s meeting with Xi Jinping Friday to finalize the agreement, which may involve—get this—a wealthy Trump-supporting tech mogul. Guest: Nitish Pahwa, staff writer for business and tech at Slate. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next TBD—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Slate Plus listeners. It's Lizzie O'Leary. Welcome to The Discourse from What Next TBD.
0:06.7	Every episode, I sit down with smart people to talk about one big thing in the online conversation from the week.
0:12.8	This is available exclusively to Slate Plus members. That's you if you're listening. So welcome.
0:18.7	Hello. Thank you. Et cetera.. This week we are talking with my friend
0:23.4	and slate colleague, Natish Pawah. Hi, Tish. Hello. How you doing? I am okay. I think the
0:31.6	you've dragged you into the office today. You're like, okay. I think it's more just how things are in general.
0:39.1	Fair enough.
0:39.4	Yeah.
0:40.8	All right.
0:41.4	So let's talk about some of how things are in the online world.
0:45.2	On Monday, the Trump administration announced it had reached a framework.
0:50.0	I'm using air quotes.
0:50.9	You can see my hands.
0:51.8	Nobody else can.
0:52.8	Of a deal with China that would allow
0:55.7	TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. We have seen this movie before. Back in April,
1:01.9	Vice President Vance said he expected a deal to materialize before the then April 5th deadline.
1:08.5	Then that fell through. President Trump extended the deadline for finding a
1:13.7	buyer in the aftermath. He's done that a bunch of times, all in all, four, I believe, since
1:19.3	January of this year. It is also not clear that that is legal under this law. It's not legal.
1:25.7	It's straight up not legal. It's not legal, but here we are. The Supreme Court
1:29.1	said the ban should go through, Congress passed the law, and I mean, the Attorney General
	...

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