US President-elect Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order when he takes office that would suspend the law on the forced sale of TikTok for 60 to 90 days under threat of blocking the platform in the US. This would allow his administration to negotiate or find a temporary solution, otherwise the social network could be blocked as early as next Sunday.
Possible Suspension of TikTok’s Forced Sale
Trump is looking for ways to save the popular short-video platform, exploring the possibility of making an unconventional deal or employing a legal maneuver, such as issuing an executive order that could weaken the law passed by Congress last year, the Washington Post reports, citing two sources. The politician is interested in becoming the savior of the platform on which he believes he is universally respected. His aides and business allies are trying to find opportunities to do this. Trump needs to resolve this issue, because on his social media page he repeatedly made a campaign promise to “save TikTok,” where he has 14 million subscribers.
A law passed by Congress and signed by current President Joe Biden requires Chinese tech giant ByteDance to sell the platform by January 19 or face an immediate ban in the United States. Last week, the country’s Supreme Court heard a lawsuit filed by TikTok’s administration, which insists on the unconstitutional nature of the law; a decision has not yet been made, but the court is not expected to suspend the law. Experts are also sure that even an executive order will not be able to completely override the law passed by Congress.
Trump himself tried to block TikTok during his first term, but in recent years he has begun to praise the app, contrasting it with the Meta platforms where his pages were blocked, and seeing TikTok as an opportunity to reach a younger audience. In December, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who lives in Singapore, met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Shortly after, Trump posted statistics on his platform, Truth Social, showing that he was a TikTok star, and videos about his presidential campaign had racked up 4 billion views, more than his rival Kamala Harris, Fox News, and Taylor Swift.
Legal Maneuvers and Potential Solutions
A new president could push Congress to repeal the law, a dubious option because it has bipartisan support. Another option would be to instruct the attorney general not to enforce it, effectively pretending the law does not exist; Trump’s pick for the job, Pam Bondi, declined to answer a question about whether she would enforce the law when she was confirmed. A further possibility is to sell only part of TikTok so that the administration can take credit for the deal and formally comply with the law, which requires a “qualified sale” of the platform’s assets.
However, an actual sale of TikTok seems highly unlikely, the Washington Post’s sources say, because the assets at stake are valued at $50 billion. There are also doubts about TikTok’s appeal to potential buyers, given that numerous competitors, including YouTube and Instagram, have their own versions of the short-video platform. TikTok has called reports that Chinese officials discussed handing over the platform to Elon Musk’s Social Network X “pure fiction.” The Trump camp has floated the idea of reviving Project Texas, a $1.5 billion package of sweeping TikTok reforms offered to the Biden administration in exchange for dropping its claims. The program would give the U.S. government significant powers over the platform, including veto power over hiring and software deployment decisions and even a “kill switch” if TikTok, in the federal government’s view, crosses the line, notes NIXsolutions.
The situation is complicated by the fact that ByteDance is categorically against selling TikTok, dismissing talk of it as pointless. The uncertainty has a demoralizing effect on TikTok employees themselves, although the platform’s administration intends to continue working under any circumstances, even if the situation remains unresolved and the social network’s client disappears from app stores for American users. We’ll keep you updated on any developments.