President-elect Donald Trump is expected to give TikTok more time to strike a deal after he returns to power on Monday after China signaled it would be open to a deal to keep TikTok in the US market.
The short video service used by 170 million Americans was briefly taken offline for US users on Saturday, hours before a law took effect on Sunday saying it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds .
US officials had said that under ByteDance, there was a risk that Americans’ data would be misused.
TikTok restored access on Sunday and thanked Trump for assuring TikTok and its business partners that they would not face large fines for keeping the app running.
The app and website were up and running on Monday, but TikTok was not yet available for download in the Apple and Google app stores, suggesting the two companies were waiting for clearer legal assurances.
“Honestly, we have no choice. We have to save it,” Trump said at a rally on Sunday before his inauguration, adding that the US will seek a joint venture to restore the app used by half of Americans.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington with Trump on Monday. Chew joined several Big Tech CEOs, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Trump had previously said he would issue an executive order to grant TikTok a reprieve from the ban after taking office, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app.
This comes after China indicated for the first time that it would be open to a transaction that would keep TikTok operating in the US.
When asked about the reinstatement of the app and Trump’s desire for a deal, China’s foreign ministry said at a regular news briefing on Monday that it believed companies should “independently decide” on their operations and deals.
“TikTok has operated in the US for many years and is well-loved by American users,” ministry spokesman Mao Ning said.
“We hope that the US can diligently listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for firms operating there.
The debate over TikTok comes at a tense moment in US-China relations.
Trump has said he intends to impose tariffs on China, but has also indicated he hopes to have more direct contact with China’s leader.
Trump’s bailout of TikTok represents a change in attitude from his first term in office. In 2020, he sought to ban the app over concerns that the company was sharing Americans’ personal information with the Chinese government.
Trump has recently said he has “a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” crediting the app for helping him win over young voters in the 2024 presidential election.
In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell TikTok, but then blessed a deal structured as a partnership rather than an investment that would involve Oracle and Walmart taking stakes in the company. cloud.
Not everyone in Trump’s Republican Party agreed with efforts to circumvent the law and “Save TikTok.”
Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement: “Now that the law has gone into effect, there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of the effective date. For TikTok to return online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that meets the requirements of the qualified sale law by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China.
The US has never banned a major social media platform.
The law passed overwhelmingly by Congress gives the incoming Trump administration sweeping authority to ban or require the sale of other Chinese-owned apps.
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