In case you haven’t noticed, you still have your TikTok.

Thursday, November 12th was supposed to be TikTok’s absolute final day of operating in the United States following an executive order from the President banning the popular social media platform’s use if it wasn’t bought by a domestic entity.

But that deadline came and went and TikTok hasn’t gone anywhere. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance will now have until November 27th to persuade US national security officials that its proposed deal with Oracle and Walmart should be approved.

ByteDance had asked for a month to finalize the details of the sale, but the Department of Justice only offered 15 days. The Trump administration has decreed that the social media platform, which approximately 50 million Americans – mostly minors – use daily, is a national security threat. ByteDance is a Chinese company, and they collect data from TikTok users (as all social platforms do.)

Concerns for the security of user data, combined with an increasingly fractious relationship with China, led to President Trump’s call for a ban of the mobile app unless it was separated from its Chinese parent company based in Beijing. That’s what the White House is saying, anyway.

A compromise was reached in which ByteDance would sell 20% of TikTok to the U.S. software and cloud computing company Oracle and Walmart. That deal is currently on hold.

Attorney General William Barr failed to enforce the president’s order and a Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on why the Trump administration appeared to be backing away from its threats to ban TikTok.

So for now, the 100 million Americans who have downloaded the app still can get their short video fix. The app has proven especially popular during the pandemic, with clips both silly and satirical helping the housebound while away the hours.

Federal courts have halted the Trump administration’s prior attempts to force a sale of TikTok, blocking an order that would have both banned all U.S. transactions with TikTok and removed it from app stores. In light of those legal defeats, Trump’s sell-by timeline seemed to be an empty threat.

TikTok says White House officials are the ones responsible for the delay in enforcement.

“We have offered detailed solutions to finalize that agreement, but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework,” TikTok said in a statement.

To TikTok’s legal team, the timing of the Feds’ ban was suspicious, appearing to be retaliation as it came just weeks after a coordinated TikTok prank. Users on the app reserved a massive amount of tickets to a Trump rally in Oklahoma, inflating the number of expected attendees. Only 6000 or so showed up. Shortly after that, the administration started moving to ban the app in the States.

What’s your opinion? Is the ban justified? Let us know in the comments.