TikTok’s Uncertain Future Under Trump Administration

After Donald Trump was elected President of the United States last week, tech CEOs such as Apple’s Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) all publicly congratulated him.

However, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has remained silent. According to CNBC , this is noteworthy because among the leading technology companies, TikTok faces the risk of being banned from operating in the US.

In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operations by January 19 or face being banned. The move was met with bipartisan support.

Now, Trump’s return to the White House could provide a “lifeline” for the platform, according to CNBC . Trump began cozying up to the social network after meeting billionaire Jeff Yass in February, a major Republican donor and ByteDance investor.

Yass personally and his company Susquehanna International Group own 7% and 15% of ByteDance shares respectively, worth a total of $21 billion.

Mr. Trump launched his TikTok account in June and has amassed more than 14.5 million followers. During his campaign, he used the app’s uncertain future in the United States to rally voters. “We have no intention of doing anything to TikTok, but the opposition will shut it down. So if you like the app, vote for Trump,” he wrote on the social network Truth Social in September.

He has not publicly discussed his plans for TikTok since his election, but transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the new president will deliver on his promises. “The American people re-elected President Trump by a wide margin, giving him the authority to deliver on his campaign promises,” she said.

The Washington Post ’s own sources said the president is expected to try to block the TikTok ban after taking office. Given his experience with social media, Trump may not want to make a decision that would cause him to lose the attention and influence he has built on TikTok, Long Le, a China business expert at Santa Clara University, said.

However, some other experts say that trying to lift the ban could carry political risks for Trump, as he could be seen as being friendly to China, in contrast to the confrontational tone he adopted during his campaign. “This is a political issue,” noted James Lewis, a data privacy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Maintaining the TikTok ban could help Trump score points with lawmakers concerned about China’s global political and economic influence, said Milton Mueller, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy. “I don’t think he’ll score big points if he defends TikTok,” Mueller said.

In the scenario of wanting to throw a “lifebuoy”, Trump also cannot do it easily because he faces significant political and legal challenges, according to ABC News . The outcome may depend on support from a series of major congressional organizations and the Supreme Court to technology corporations such as Google and Oracle.

Specifically, the easiest way to reverse the policy is from Congress. To do so, both houses would need to vote to overturn Mr. Biden’s bill and send it to Trump for his signature. “The easiest way is to ask Congress to overturn the ban,” said Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University.

However, he noted that this is not an easy path. Seven months ago, the ban passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 352-65. In the Senate, 79 members voted in favor, compared to 18 against and 3 abstentions.

The second way is to bypass Congress, instead seeking to “buy time” in a lawsuit against the law that TikTok has filed and is being considered by a three-judge panel on the DC Court of Appeals (the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, one of 13 US federal appeals courts).

Even if the DC Court of Appeals rules against TikTok, it can still appeal and take the case to the Supreme Court before the ban goes into effect. The Supreme Court could decide that the case merits a stay, potentially throwing out the ban altogether. “The Supreme Court may want to consider this,” predicts Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Alternatively, rather than repealing the law or relying on court intervention, Mr. Trump could turn to the Justice Department, which could theoretically choose not to enforce the law under his administration, reassuring companies like Apple and Oracle that they would not face prosecution if they violated it, such as allowing TikTok to be downloaded and installed.

Or the Trump administration could come up with a more flexible interpretation of the ban that would allow it to conclude that TikTok has complied with the requirement to separate from parent company ByteDance. Cornell University professor Sarah Kreps said Trump could choose to propose “selective enforcement” that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the US without being penalized.

But if Trump chooses not to enforce it, that still won’t be enough. Companies like Apple and Oracle could decide to stick with the ban anyway, since they’re taking legal risks if the White House changes course, Rozenshtein said. “Trump is pretty unpredictable. If you’re Apple’s legal counsel, do you really want that risk hanging over your head?” he said.

The final option is to play matchmaker. Mr Trump could try to find a US investor to buy TikTok , helping the platform avoid a ban. But time is running out for such a large transaction. The law allows for a 90-day extension to sell TikTok, as long as the company is negotiating a deal. In that case, the deadline would be pushed back to April 2025. But the catch with this option is that TikTok has shown little interest and China has been opposed from the start.

For his part, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has remained silent before and after Trump’s victory. According to Long Le, the platform may be taking a neutral approach and a wait-and-see strategy.

Source: vnexpress.net – Phien An ( according to CNBC, ABC News )