Starting on Saturday night, Tiktok is no longer, the short video of the Chinese BYDANCE company, available in the United States as a result of A new law prohibited The company’s applications in the country. By Sunday noon, she returned.
Although the law calls by BYTEDANCE to sell Tiktok to non -Chinese owners or facing the ban from Sunday, Tiktok said it was responding to the new “clarity” of President -elect Donald J. Trump when she recovered.
Trump pledged early on Sunday to stop the implementation of the ban to give Tiktok more time to make a law to meet the law. It is still unclear how he will be able to do so.
What happens with Tiktok this week?
Tiktok conclusions stopped working in the United States late Saturday night. Instead of videos, the application showed a popup message to users stating that a law prohibits Tiktok has been its age in the United States and that “President Trump indicated that he would work with us to find a solution to repeat Tiktok as soon as he takes office. He added, “Please stay!”
Then the application appeared again at noon on Sunday.
“In agreement with our service providers, Tiktok is about to restore the service. The company said in a statement:” We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and confirmation for our service providers that they will not face any penalties when providing Tiktok. “
In practice, the law punishes applications stores, such as Apple and Google, and other internet companies, such as Oracle, to distribute or update any Tiktok content.
Can President -elect Donald J. Trump cancel the ban?
It is not clear whether Mr. Trump can disable the ban under the law, but he pledged to do so. Mr. Trump He said on the social media platform Truth Social On Sunday, it will issue an executive order on Monday that would “extend the time period before the law enforces the law, so that we can reach an agreement to protect our national security.”
He also said that he is planning to arrange a deal that would give the United States a 50 percent royal share in a new entity that includes Tiktok, but it was not clear the form he would take. He wrote: “Without the approval of the United States, there will be no tuk tuk.” “With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Can he do it legally?
The new law includes a clause that stipulates that the president can issue an extension of the ban on a period of 90 days for one time, if the Congress testifies that the “qualified liquidation” is ongoing and that it can take place during that period. But it is not clear whether he can practice this option now after the law entered into force. The Congress approved the law with wide support from the two parties, and President Biden fell it and was now supported by the Supreme Court. So just sabotage it now will raise serious questions.
Sarah Krebis, director of the Institute of Technology Policy at Cornell University, said that Trump’s options are now “an unknown legal zone.”
What is the government’s concerns about Tiktok?
US officials have always felt anxious about bytedance relations with the Chinese government. They pointed out that bytedance can deliver sensitive American user data to Beijing, such as site information, with reference to laws that allow the Chinese government to request data secretly from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence collection operations.
They are also concerned that China may use it Tiktok content recommendations To feed wrong information, which is a source of concern That escalated In the United States after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas and during the presidential elections.
Tiktok has long confirmed that it had not abused the use of data or published advertising at the request of Beijing in the United States. She tried to distance herself from by atledance, which is considered one of the international companies The most valuable startup companiesBy saying that the headquarters of Tiktok is located in Singapore and Los Angeles, and that bytedance is largely owned by international investors. But there are still employees in China working on Tiktok, although Tiktok itself is not used in China.
Did Trump not start all this in the first place?
Yes. Mr. Trump tried to organize the sale of Tiktok to American companies in 2020 and tried to ban the application – an effort by the federal courts at the end. he Public c His position on Tiktok last March shortly after his meeting with Jeff Yas, billionaire and the great Republican donor who has a large stake in the bytedance, although Mr. Trump said they did not discuss the company.
He also enjoyed his success on the application during the 2024 elections, where he now has more than 14 million followers. The credit for implementation was attributed to his help to win young voters. In his message on Sunday, he indicated that he wanted Tiktok users to enjoy his installation on the application.
