TikTok Keeps on Ticking After the U.S. Backs Down on Its Order

Although it’s uncommon for Friday the 13th, TikTok cheated death last night.

Yesterday was the deadline, issued by President Trump in August, for TikTok parent ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations...or be rendered inoperable nationwide.

• The move—which prompted countless goodbye videos from the app’s top creators—would’ve banned app stores from offering TikTok, as well as cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud from web-hosting it.

The latest: a dramatic turn in a months-long saga. The Commerce Department backed down yesterday, saying it would not enforce the order. For the moment, the world’s hottest algorithm is in the clear.

TikTok may have been waiting with bated breath to learn its fate, but the team stayed busy working on new features in the meantime, including a global partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify, announced Oct. 27.

• It started with ad tools that allow Shopify merchants to turn their products into in-feed video ads and will eventually lead to other in-app shopping features.

Bottom line: Staving off the inevitable splinternet, one day at a time.