What's Going on With TikTok? Here's a Quick Podcast Primer

How a fun video platform became a political lightning rod

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TikTok has been one of the iconic pastimes of the 2020 quarantine era, with tens of millions of Americans using it to post everything from protest footage to viral dance challenges.

But in recent days it’s also been in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump, who threatened to “ban” the app due to concerns with its China-based parent company, ByteDance.

Since Trump’s first threatening comments about the app, intense debate and confusion has swirled around TikTok, whose U.S. operations now seems headed for a fast-tracked acquisition by Microsoft or another major player.

Adweek platforms reporter Scott Nover has been covering each of TikTok’s twists and turns—and wrote an excellent analysis of whether a president even can ban an app—so we invited him onto a bonus episode of Adweek’s weekly podcast, Yeah That’s Probably an Ad, to catch us all up on what’s happened and what might be next.

You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, check it out on Spotify, or stream the full episode below.