TikTok, the short-form video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been unavailable in the United States since Saturday night due to a new law banning the company's app in the country. By Sunday afternoon, I was back to normal.
The law requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a ban starting Sunday, but TikTok will have to deal with Donald J. Trump when restarting the service. He said he was responding to the president-elect's new “clarity.”
Trump vowed early Sunday to delay implementing the ban to give TikTok time to make sales that meet the law. It is not yet clear how he is able to do so.
What's happening on TikTok this weekend?
The TikTok feed stopped working in the US late Saturday night. Instead of a video, the app shows users a pop-up message informing them that a law has been enacted in the United States to ban TikTok and that “President Trump has indicated his intention to work with us on a solution to bring TikTok back after he takes office.” ” he said. ” He added, “Please stay tuned!”
Then, around noon on Sunday, the app worked again.
“Through agreements with service providers, TikTok is restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurances to service providers that no penalties will be imposed on the provision of TikTok,” the company said. said in a statement.
In practice, the law penalizes app stores like Apple and Google and internet companies like Oracle for distributing or updating TikTok content.
Could President-elect Donald J. Trump rescind the ban?
It's unclear whether Trump could legally block the ban, but he has vowed to do so. On Sunday, Trump tweeted on the social media platform Truth Social that he would issue an executive order Monday that would “extend the period until the law's ban goes into effect so that we can reach agreements to protect the security of our country.” He said he would issue the order. ”
He also said he plans to finalize a deal that would give the U.S. 50% ownership of a new entity involving TikTok, but it was unclear what form that would take. “Without US approval, there would be no Tik Tok,” he wrote. “With our approval, it could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Can he do it legally?
The new law includes a provision that allows the president to issue a one-time 90-day extension of the ban if he certifies to Congress that a “qualified sale” is in progress and can be completed within that period. But it's unclear whether he will be able to exercise that option now that the law is in effect. The law passed Congress with broad bipartisan support, was signed by President Biden, and is now upheld by the Supreme Court. Therefore, simply reversing it now would raise serious questions.
Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University's Institute for High Technology Policy, said Trump's current options are “legally uncharted territory.”
What are the government's concerns about TikTok?
U.S. officials have long been concerned about ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government. They cited a law that allows the Chinese government to secretly request data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence-gathering activities, and the possibility that ByteDance could hand over sensitive data of U.S. users, including location information, to the Chinese government. It is pointed out that there is.
They also worry that China could use TikTok's content recommendations to fuel misinformation, a concern that grew in the United States after the start of the Israel-Hamas war and during the presidential election.
TikTok has long maintained that it has never misused data or spread propaganda in the United States at the behest of the Chinese government. TikTok's headquarters are in Singapore and Los Angeles, and ByteDance claims to be majority owned by global investors, distancing itself from ByteDance, which is considered one of the world's most valued startups. It is said that However, there are still employees working on TikTok in China, even though TikTok itself is not used in China.
Didn't Trump start all of this in the first place?
yes. Trump orchestrated the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company in 2020 and tried to ban the app, but that was ultimately overturned by a federal court. Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok last March, shortly after meeting with Republican megadonor and billionaire Jeff Yass, who owns a significant stake in ByteDance stock, but Trump said they had not discussed it.
He also found success on the app in the 2024 election, where he currently has more than 14 million followers. He credits the app with helping attract younger voters. In a message Sunday, he said he wants TikTok users to be able to enjoy his inauguration on the app.
