The newly elected president, Donald Trump, indicated on Sunday his intention of making an executive order that will allow the China-based parent firm of Tik Tok to seek an American buyer before the app gets permanently prohibited in the United States.
This decision of his was announced in a post made on his Truth Social account and it came at the same time as millions of Tik Tok users in US woke up to the sad realization that they could not access the Tik Tok app or platform. The google and apple app stores had deleted the app from their stores to follow the laws set by the federal government which mandated them to do so if the parent company of Tik Tok, Byte Dance, did not divest the American division of the company by Sunday.
Lifeline for TikTok Amid U.S. Ban
He stated that “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” in regard to the executive order and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
“Americans are looking forward to follow our tradition Inauguration on Monday and any additional events and discussions,” Trump stated.
The current law makes it possible for the existing president to extend for 90 more days while a sale is being agreed upon. While some investors did place bids, ByteDance has previously indicated they wouldn’t sell. Referring to a post from Trump on Sunday, “I would want my county to have a 50% stake or interest in a m joint business,” but whether it refers to the country or a company was not clear.
My proposal is that this solution is in our best interest because, we save and sustain TikTok, and ensure it states operationally functional. Without Tik Tok there is no approval from the US. With consent from the US, it is modern worth trillions of dollars – and worth hundreds of billions.
TikTok Ban Strikes Millions of U.S. Users
ByteDance was mandated by federal legislation to end this company’s United States activities by Sunday because of these national security risks caused by the ownership of the application. Following broad bipartisan backing in April, the law was enacted, and US President Joe Biden. Quoting TikTok and ByteDance, they filed a lawsuit claiming breach of First Amendment. The Supreme Court unanimously supported the law the Friday preceding the last one.
“At the present moment, you are unable to use TikTok owing to a recently enacted law that bans the app within the USA,” a notification reported users as they accessed the application during a Saturday evening only to find the app not functioning.
The blocks TikTok imposed some hours prior took quite a number of its users by surprise. This is as some analysts predicted that the ban as written did not stipulate TikTok pulling down its site, but rather disabling the account. It was expected that existing users would still have access to the videos until the app ceased functioning due to persisting lack of updates.
According to Watson, “the Tik Tok community is so diverse in their content, not having it availble to us is unpleasant”.
With the shuttering of the account Watson says she was in denial, but now with all the free time on her hands says she needs to increase her activity and concentration towards Instagram and Youtube.
Apple informed its device clients that it also deleted additional apps made by the TikTok parent company from its app store, including one that was circulated by influencers.
On Friday, as TikTok’s association with China is believed to pose a danger to national security, the supreme court ruled that this concern takes precedence over any suppressive measures towards the application or its enormous user base of 170 million in the United States.
Trump’s plan to issue an executive order to spare TikTok on his first day in office was possibly a reflection of the simultaneous political dynamics surrounding the Chinese-owned application. TikTok, alongside its broad range of usage now, originally became popular due to its dance and music clips.
The Biden administration opted to output emphatic statements regarding this ban, claiming that it did not want to enforce the regulations set forth previously by President Trump due to his upcoming office inauguration on Monday. This was despite their role in enforcing this nationwide prohibition.
Trump did, however, ban the usage of the messaging app WeChat as well as TikTok in his first presidential term in 2020, an order that courts disagreed with. The younger demographic emerged as a different electoral base, resulting in subsequent electoral votes for Trump in the latest presidential elections. The ban emerged as a point of debate in congress with the Biden government striving to roll back on the laws set by Trump.
“America owes great gratitude to President Trump who indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok which makes us hopeful,” the app’s users have reported receiving such messages.
Users in the US conveniently have the option to close the application. Considering the on-going ban, it is their wisest choice.
Users observe identical messages and are offered the option to download their data, which TikTok has claimed before may take days to process.
On a certain website, Apple has already stated that three Tiktok apps along with eight other apps created by ByteDance are no more accessible in the US as visitors into the country may have access to them on a limited basis. These removed apps included video editing application CapCut, Hyper for art editing, and Lemon8 video editing and sharing application which has similar features as TikTok.
As per him, the company has an obligation to follow laws of different jurisdictions where Apple operates.
As per Apple, the said apps will not be removed from the devices of people who already had them, but the in app purchases and new subscriptions will not be possible and that the updates on the operating apps and ios on the iPhones and Ipads will only make the said apps worse.
Since the law on selling or banning TikTok was passed about nine months back, ByteDance has publicly declared that they will not be selling the app. Although, Trump did mention that he hoped his administration could work on a deal that could “save” the app.
Prior to the inauguration, Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew is expected to be present at the ceremony and is said to have a good spot by the stage. Chew did express his gratitude to Trump for being vocal of his intent to keep the app accessible for the users of the US while taking a strong political stance against arbitrary censorship.
TikTok’s Trump appointed security head, Michael Waltz revealed in a CBS interview that the president elect discussed the app going inactive within the US during his weekend talk with Xi Jinping, who is the President of China. Waltz also mentioned that there was an agreement to resolve the problem.
A person who is familiar with the issue informed me that an AI startup called Perplexity has over the weekend pitched the owners of the app ByteDance with a plan to open a new company combining Perplexity AI with the US branch of TikTok.
Perplexity does not require the algorithm that TikTok uses to decide which videos are best suited for the users, which has led to the immense popularity of the app.
TikTok’s Future Hangs in Balance
Kevin O’Leary, a former shark on “Shark Tank”, claimed that a group of investors he was part of offered ByteDance a whopping $20 billion. Not only did O’Leary, but other investors also claimed there was an opportunity with TikTok as well. In addition, Trump’s former treasury secretary claimed that he was in the process of forming an investment group to purchase TikTok.
They also had this concern: “Some lawmakers and officials in Washington are troubled with the idea that the algorithm which determines what content the users view can be manipulated by the Chinese government.” However, the US hasn’t presented any proof of TikTok assisting Chinese authorities with user information or tampering with the algorithm for the express benefit of China.
With the service disappearing in America, there are those in China that accuse the US of silencing the prominent social media platform. This is further supported by the comment made by Mr. Hu Ji Xian, the former chief editor of the Global Times, “The day Tik Tok announced the ban for services in America is the day my country has buried the most effective social networking application, its heartbreaking.”
“If a country proclaims to have such freedom of speech, we can only paint such frank and forthright social media as tyranny in application,” Hu, who is now a political commentator, furthers his idea.
To comply with the more stringent censorship in Beijing, ByteDance provides its Chinese counterpart to TikTok, known as Douyin. For this reason, TikTok is not accessible in China.
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