Beginning on Saturday evening, TikTok, the short-form video app owned by the Chinese language firm ByteDance, was unavailable in the US because of a brand new regulation that banned the corporate’s apps within the nation. By round midday on Sunday, it was again.
Although the regulation calls on ByteDance to promote TikTok to non-Chinese language homeowners 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 regulation. It’s nonetheless not clear how he’ll have the option to take action.
What’s occurring with TikTok this weekend?
TikTok feeds stopped working in the US late on Saturday evening. As an alternative of movies, the app confirmed a pop-up message to customers that mentioned a regulation 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 required 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 regulation 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 beneath the regulation, however he has vowed to take action. Mr. Trump mentioned on the social media platform Reality Social on Sunday that he would situation an govt order on Monday that may “prolong the time period earlier than the regulation’s prohibitions take impact, in order that we are able to 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 % possession stake in a brand new entity involving TikTok, nevertheless it was unclear what form that may take. “With out U.S. approval, there is no such thing as a Tik Tok,” he wrote. “With our approval, it’s value a whole lot of billions of {dollars}.”
Can he legally try this?
The brand new regulation has a provision that claims a president can situation 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 could actually happen throughout that interval. Nevertheless it’s not clear if he can train that possibility now that the regulation has taken impact. The regulation was handed by Congress with huge bipartisan assist, signed by President Biden and now upheld by the Supreme Courtroom. So to easily subvert it now will increase severe 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 issues 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. consumer knowledge to Beijing, like location data, noting to legal guidelines that enable the Chinese language authorities to secretly demand knowledge from Chinese language firms and residents for intelligence-gathering operations.
They’re additionally nervous that China may use TikTok’s content material suggestions to gasoline misinformation, a priority that escalated in the US after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas battle and through 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 extremely valued start-ups, by saying that TikTok’s headquarters are in Singapore and Los Angeles, and that ByteDance is essentially owned by international traders. However there are nonetheless workers in China that work on TikTok, despite the fact that TikTok itself is just not 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 talk about the corporate.
He additionally loved his success on the app through 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 wished TikTok customers to have the ability to get pleasure from his inauguration on the app.
