President-elect Donald Trump, who has supported a ban on TikTok and signed an executive order targeting its parent company, has now vowed to issue an executive order to try to save the social platform. But there's one major problem: He wants the app to operate under 50% American ownership.
"I ask the company not to let TikTok continue to be dark!" Trump wrote in the "Truth Society". "I will issue an executive order on Monday extending the time the legal ban is in effect so that we can reach agreements to protect our national security."
Trump added that he "wanted 50 percent U.S. ownership in a joint venture" and that his executive order would protect from liability any company that helped keep TikTok available before the order was issued. TikTok owner ByteDance has not publicly expressed interest in selling.
Trump is now scrambling to say he will resurrect the app, a sign that he wants to be seen as the hero who saved it even as he largely drove the momentum to ban the platform while Democrats struggled to allow it Program plays an important role. That feeling.
Last spring, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a TikTok ban that passed Congress with bipartisan support amid national security concerns over China's influence on the app's content and access to the data of 170 million Americans on the app. . The legislation requires the platform's Chinese owner ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19 or face being banned. TikTok and the app's creators tried to challenge the ban in court, but the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the ban after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it last month
Under the ban, companies like Google and Apple are banned from hosting TikTok in their app stores, but TikTok itself went a step further and cut off access to U.S. users this weekend.
"The United States has enacted laws banning TikTok, which unfortunately means you can't use TikTok right now. We are fortunate that President Trump has said he will work with us on solutions to restore TikTok once he takes office," Saturday A message appeared on TikTok's landing page after U.S. users became unable to access the app around 10:30 p.m., shortly before laws banning it took effect.
Trump claimed that his proposed deal for 50% U.S. ownership would be "a joint venture between the United States and any buyer of our choice," speculating that "if we approve it, it would be worth thousands." Billions of dollars — maybe trillions of dollars.”
Trump previously promised to extend the ban on TikTok for 90 days once he returns to office. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, questioned the legal basis on which an executive order could override the ban, but wrote that one potential avenue is the president's ability to define what constitutes a "qualified divestiture." legislation. ByteDance could "pass a motion to restructure some of the details of its ownership stake in TikTok," Rozenshtein wrote, allowing Trump to claim the company has divested enough ownership to get around the ban.
In a last-minute reversal, the Biden administration said it would not enforce the ban or fine companies that keep the app available for download, seeking to shift enforcement efforts to the Trump White House. Some Democrats in Congress are also trying to delay the ban, with Senator Ed Markey introducing legislation to delay it for 90 days.
"Given the critical nature of time, this administration recognizes that action to implement this law must fall to the next administration that takes office on Monday," Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appears to be cozying up to Trump. He will reportedly be a guest at Trump's inauguration and will join him at a "victory rally" on Sunday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., reminiscent of Trump's campaign events.