Beginning on Saturday evening, TikTok, the short-form video app owned by the Chinese language firm ByteDance, was unavailable in the US on account of a new law that banned the corporate’s apps within the nation. By round midday on Sunday, it was again.
Although the legislation calls on ByteDance to promote TikTok to non-Chinese language house owners or face a ban beginning Sunday, TikTok mentioned it was responding to new “readability” from President-elect Donald J. Trump when it restored service.
Mr. Trump vowed early Sunday to stall the implementation of the ban to offer TikTok extra time to make a sale that may fulfill the legislation. It’s nonetheless not clear how he’ll give you the chance to take action.
What’s occurring with TikTok this weekend?
TikTok feeds stopped working in the US late on Saturday evening. As a substitute of movies, the app confirmed a pop-up message to customers that mentioned a legislation banning TikTok was enacted in the US and that “President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok as soon as he takes workplace.” It added, “Please keep tuned!”
Then round midday on Sunday, the app labored once more.
“In settlement with our service suppliers, TikTok is within the strategy of restoring service. We thank President Trump for offering the mandatory readability and assurance to our service suppliers that they may face no penalties offering TikTok,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
In apply, the legislation penalizes app shops, like Apple and Google, and different web firms, like Oracle, for distributing or updating any TikTok content material.
Can President-elect Donald J. Trump reverse the ban?
It’s not clear if Mr. Trump can stall the ban underneath the legislation, however he has vowed to take action. Mr. Trump said on the social media platform Truth Social on Sunday that he would subject an govt order on Monday that may “prolong the time frame earlier than the legislation’s prohibitions take impact, in order that we will make a deal to guard our nationwide safety.”
He additionally mentioned that he deliberate to rearrange a deal that may give the US a 50 p.c possession stake in a brand new entity involving TikTok, however it was unclear what form that may take. “With out U.S. approval, there isn’t a Tik Tok,” he wrote. “With our approval, it’s price tons of of billions of {dollars}.”
Can he legally try this?
The brand new legislation has a provision that claims a president can subject a one-time extension of 90 days to the ban, if she or he certifies to Congress {that a} “certified divestiture” is underway and that it might happen throughout that interval. But it surely’s not clear if he can train that choice now that the legislation has taken impact. The legislation was handed by Congress with large bipartisan assist, signed by President Biden and now upheld by the Supreme Court docket. So to easily subvert it now will increase critical questions.
Sarah Kreps, the director of the Tech Coverage Institute at Cornell College, mentioned that Mr. Trump’s choices now are “uncharted authorized territory.”
What are the federal government’s considerations with TikTok?
U.S. officers have lengthy been involved about ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese language authorities. They’ve identified that ByteDance may hand over delicate U.S. person knowledge to Beijing, like location info, noting to legal guidelines that permit the Chinese language authorities to secretly demand knowledge from Chinese language firms and residents for intelligence-gathering operations.
They’re additionally fearful that China may use TikTok’s content recommendations to gas misinformation, a priority that escalated in the US after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas struggle and in the course of the presidential election.
TikTok has lengthy maintained that it has by no means misused knowledge or unfold propaganda on the behest of Beijing in the US. It has tried to distance itself from ByteDance, which is taken into account to be one of many world’s most highly valued start-ups, by saying that TikTok’s headquarters are in Singapore and Los Angeles, and that ByteDance is basically owned by world traders. However there are nonetheless staff in China that work on TikTok, despite the fact that TikTok itself isn’t utilized in China.
Didn’t Trump begin all of this within the first place?
Sure. Mr. Trump tried to orchestrate a sale of TikTok to American firms in 2020 and tried to ban the app — an effort that was finally struck down by federal courts. He publicly changed his stance on TikTok final March quickly after he met with Jeff Yass, a billionaire and Republican megadonor who owns a major share of ByteDance, although Mr. Trump has mentioned they didn’t focus on the corporate.
He additionally loved his success on the app in the course of the 2024 election, the place he now has over 14 million followers. He has credited the app with serving to him win younger voters. In his message on Sunday, he famous that he needed TikTok customers to have the ability to get pleasure from his inauguration on the app.
