Trump’s and His Potentials on TikTok Future in the US
In a stunning turnaround, Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is holding onto a glimmer of hope that President-elect Donald Trump might be its ticket to staying active in the United States. Despite a looming federal mandate requiring the app to sell to a non-Chinese company by January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, the President-elect’s team has begun to suggest a commitment to honouring campaign promises, which included hints of reconsidering TikTok’s position in the country.
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The Trump administration and TikTok were never exactly friends. In 2020, it had tried to ban the app because it belonged to ByteDance, a tech company based in China, citing that the app posed a threat to both national security and privacy. Having an estimated 170 million users in the U.S. alone, TikTok has evolved into one of the top social media outlets for young users, along with many more. These developments could mean a major policy shift as Trump, who once was one of the strongest critics, may now consider giving TikTok a pathway to continue its operations in the U.S.
A Change of Heart?
Throughout the campaign, Trump has sounded open to resolving the TikTok situation, a nod that he may be amenable to looking for ways around an all-out ban. Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt reinforced the message: “President Trump received a tremendous mandate from the American public during this election and has promised bold action, so it stands to reason that he’s going to deliver in that promise on TikTok, too,” she wrote. Still, the Trump team hasn’t spelled out precisely how that might play out.
For TikTok, a conciliatory gesture from Trump might portend compromise. This potential deviation from the hardline posture of 2020 may also involve regulatory concessions or supervised arrangements that would alleviate security concerns without making ByteDance give up control. Yet the bill, signed into law in April, requires TikTok to be sold to an entity other than one based in China to avoid an outright ban and has bipartisan support in Congress.
TikTok’s Legal Countermoves
The firm has gone to court in its fight against the looming mandate, arguing that it cannot implement the new measures ahead of the January deadline, since the Chinese government has imposed some restrictions on the company. ByteDance also argued before the judges that a forced sale is inconsistent with the First Amendment, since it would infringe on free speech rights, in case the app got banned. Most legal experts though say chances of such laws from being blocked in court are slim, going by the broad bipartisan support the legislation received.
However, the final word will be with the courts because the fate of TikTok largely hangs in the balance of whether Trump is willing to reinterpret or even delay the enforcement of the law. Since ByteDance has undertaken action, such as improving data protection practice and firewalling U.S. user data, that action may not convince lawmakers or federal courts of TikTok’s independence from the influence of the Chinese government.
Strategic Political Relationships Structure
The company has lobbied hard, and the firm has been actively courting alliances with the help of those that cross political lines. Earlier this year, Trump met with billionaire Jeff Yass, a prominent investor who holds an equity stake in ByteDance. Yass claims that the two did not discuss TikTok. He is the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, an investment firm that holds a significant equity stake in ByteDance. Through the influence Yass has created, the application has garnered some momentum among conservative crowds. He also happens to be a member of Club for Growth, an anti-tax group known to hire Republican advisers in order to push its agenda within Washington.
Such outreach efforts have been made possible in part by Tony Sayegh, a former high-ranking member of Trump’s Treasury Department. Sayegh, now the head of public affairs for Susquehanna, has remained close friends with Trump and was reportedly instrumental in convincing the campaign to let it establish Trump’s own account on TikTok, which he now has 14.4 million followers on.
Bipartisan Outreach and Widening Reach
Aside from the contact with the A-list Republicans, TikTok also reached into Democrat circles. The app was taken on by various high-profile Democratic strategists, among them David Plouffe, who went on to join the campaign team of Kamala Harris. The vice president’s success on the app, where she gained millions of followers, garnered much attention and revealed the strength of the platform as an instrument of political influence.
Despite all these efforts, many TikTok employees still remain skeptical about the future of the company in the U.S. Former employees at the company pointed out that leadership sometimes spoke loosely about the threat of a ban, joking it could one day be used as the setting for a Hollywood movie script. For many insiders, though, the doubts run even deeper: even if Trump endorses the short form of video platform, they believe deep structural or regulatory changes will be needed for it to survive.
Possible Steps Ahead
Policy analysts believe that despite a potential Trump election, there are several barriers to overcome. The legislation demanding a sale or prohibition has an end date, and reversing that would probably require action on Congress-an arduous campaign in today’s political climate.
Former national security advisor and currently a law professor Alan Rozenshtein believes that Trump may well have a handful of extremely limited moves to temporarily block the mandate facing TikTok. For instance, he can order his administration’s attorney general to delay immediate enforcement of the ban, which would put Apple, Google, and other leading technology companies in a pretty awkward spot regarding their app distribution policies. They would have no choice but rely on assurances from the Trump administration that any legal blowback would be avoided, which at best is highly unlikely.
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Rozenshtein also mentions an amendment that would provide the president with the authority to decide when ByteDance should be confirmed to have sufficiently mitigated Chinese oversight over TikTok. As the company continues to make piecemeal concessions, it might be in a position to afford Trump the opportunity to say that it has started to address its security concerns. The third option would be the extension of the January deadline by three months in case the Trump team feels a serious step toward the divestiture or restructuring.
National Security Concerns and Future Implications
The other main reason for the U.S. government’s scrutiny is that the Chinese government may use TikTok to access all the sensitive data from its users and even enforce public opinion. There has not been any concrete evidence revealed by the government that ByteDance even collaborates with the Chinese government on such issues, but the possibility of misuse of data is what drives the legislative push towards the selling of TikTok.
Jacob Helberg is a senior adviser at Palantir and is an advocate for the law supposedly aimed at TikTok. Jacob seems optimistic that this nonconventional approach by Trump will eventually result in a solution where TikTok could continue to operate without those particular national security issues. “This outside-the-box kind of thinking may bear creativity,” Helberg believes.
Courts might pose the immediate litmus test for TikTok. A judgment from a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is due shortly. If the verdict goes against TikTok, both the company and the current administration can even move it further to the Supreme Court, potentially influencing the January 19 deadline.
Conclusion
Nobody knows what the future of policy change on TikTok looks like as Trump’s administration will begin soon. The way in which Trump spoke about TikTok was certainly against all his rhetoric during the presidential campaign. So, one has to guess as to what his final move is going to be. Political, legal, and international sensitivities may dictate the future of the app in the United States as these dynamics play out in the coming months.