You might think TikTok would have a plan B by now.

It is now clear that the company never planned to lose to the Supreme Court. Probably not, since the Chinese government has the final say on the sale. Now, TikTok leaders are counting on Donald Trump A last-ditch effort to save them undoubtedly comes with strings attached.

From a political perspective, TikTok has failed at every turn in this multi-year saga. Executives have repeatedly denied the possibility of a ban and even scoffed at the idea. Congress caught them off guard by overwhelmingly agreeing to a ban. Then, with just one day left before the law came into effect, they lost their appeal to the Supreme Court. The only leverage they seem to have left is that Trump thinks the app helped him win the election — and that they're willing to let him extract whatever pound of flesh he wants.

TikTok is also stuck in this technical dilemma. It spent more than $1 billion on "Project Texas" to try to calm concerns about the flow of U.S. data to China. Surprisingly, TikTok launches ‘Project Texas’ forward The government gave its blessing, but of course that never came. US data is now isolated in a separate infrastructure maintained by Oracle, and from the 19th, Oracle will have to legally stop cooperation with TikTok.

One person involved in the project recently told me that canceling the Texas project now would be a "huge effort" involving many engineers. Shutting down the app, rather than simply removing it from the U.S. app store, is TikTok's only option. It's unclear how this will affect the TikTok experience outside the United States. This is an unprecedented situation.

Even so, TikTok is trying to play it cool. Blake ChandleeThe company's president told the Advertiser after the Supreme Court ruling that "we are optimistic about finding the best path forward" and looked forward to the "next steps" before the ban comes into force. To my knowledge, employees have not received additional instructions internally. As I wrote earlier this week, the mood is grim even among people who worked on TikTok during the first ban attempt four years ago.

Given that no one wins if TikTok disappears, Trump may still find a way to ensure that the app continues to operate in the United States. he was invited Shou Chew Sitting on the inauguration stage Elon Musk may be working. But it is undeniable that ByteDance has put itself in this dilemma. To get out of trouble, you have to pay a price, and it's not just money.

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