US president-elect Donald Trump has revealed that he plans to temporarily block a nationwide ban on TikTok, hours after the short-video app went dark to comply with a federal law meant to force it to sever ties with Chinese parent ByteDance.
TikTok is back online, resuming service following Trump’s announcement on Sunday – just a day ahead of his inauguration in Washington – that he will issue an executive order protecting companies from any liability if they host or distribute TikTok.
Such activity became illegal earlier on Sunday when the divest-or-ban law came into effect.
The incoming president also called for a final resolution that would put 50 per cent of ownership of TikTok in US hands.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” Trump posted on social media on Sunday.
He added that the “order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order”.
“I would like the United States to have a 50 per cent ownership position in a joint venture,” he said. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
The incoming Trump administration sent another signal on bilateral engagement with China by announcing that vice-president-elect J.D. Vance met the country’s Vice-President Han Zheng, who is in Washington to attend the inauguration.
A statement by the Trump-Vance transition team said only that Vance and Han “discussed a range of topics including fentanyl, balancing trade, and regional stability”. It did not mention TikTok.
Trump’s executive order pledge for TikTok backs up his call earlier on Sunday to “SAVE TIKTOK!”, making it more likely that the app’s 170 million US users, who have lost access to the platform entirely, will be able to use it again soon. It also casts Trump, who initiated an unsuccessful effort that would have shut down the app in the US in 2020, as its potential saviour.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday said acquisitions should be “decided independently by companies” based on market principles, in accordance with the law.
“If Chinese companies are involved, they should comply with Chinese laws and regulations,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Congress passed the TikTok bill last April, and it was signed into law by departing US President Joe Biden. Under the law, platforms including Apple and Google, as well as internet hosting providers, face penalties of up to US$5,000 per user if they continue to offer TikTok after the divestment deadline expires.
The federal law that went into effect on Sunday allows the US president to extend Sunday’s deadline by 90 days if a sale is in progress, but no clear buyers have emerged, and ByteDance has said previously that it would not sell TikTok.
TikTok said earlier on Sunday on social media that it was “in the process” of restoring service to users in the United States.
It was not immediately clear whether TikTok was working as it did before the service went dark shortly before midnight on Saturday. Some users have reported that the app was working, and TikTok’s website appeared to be updating for at least some users.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It also remains unclear how ByteDance would respond to Trump’s proposal of a joint venture to run the popular social media platform.
Such an arrangement would be unprecedented, and would run against the grain of US laws and executive orders that have curtailed engagement on the tech front. Social media in the two countries have been distinct, as the technologies and regulatory regimes surrounding them have developed in recent years.
China enforces some of the world’s most restrictive social media regulations and relies on censorship to control information beyond its borders, while social media in the US is largely marked by minimal government intervention in content.
Sourabh Gupta, a senior policy specialist with the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington, said he doubted whether Trump’s 50/50 joint venture would be a solution.
He noted the outcome of Project Texas, an initiative by TikTok in July 2022 to address US data security concerns by storing American user data on Oracle servers, a plan that failed to convince the US Supreme Court.
“Granted, Project Texas dealt with the data and content issue and not the ownership issue, and thus it was the ‘foreign adversary controlled application’ aspect that did not pass judicial muster,” Gupta said.
He said one potential option for TikTok is that ByteDance shifts its headquarters beyond the reach of China’s jurisdiction and thus the reach of formal intelligence cooperation.
It could also surrender the recommendation algorithm entirely to TikTok US to avoid any data transfer to Beijing in order to keep developing the algorithm.
However, Gupta said the latter would also be difficult after China’s introduction of technology export controls in 2020, which cover sensitive ones that could include TikTok’s personalised recommendation engine.
“The Chinese government will have to sign off on decontrolling the algorithm, which it had export controlled in August 2020,” he said. “This seems rather unpalatable” to Beijing.
TikTok has tried to position itself as an independent American entity of its Chinese parent company ByteDance, particularly in response to security concerns and political pressure in the US, by emphasising its American management team and data storage practices.
