Biden leaves decision to Trump Tiktok can hope for a reprieve in the USA
The clock is ticking for Tiktok: the video app is threatened with closure in the USA if it does not change hands by Sunday. But neither the old nor the future US government seem to want the ban.
17.01.2025, 06:06
17.01.2025, 06:09
dpa
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- For Tiktok, a delay is looming just a few days before the impending end in the USA.
- According to a confidant, President-elect Donald Trump wants to buy himself more time for a deal on the video app.
- At the same time, the administration of outgoing head of state Joe Biden is also signaling that it does not want to implement a Tiktok blockade on his last day in office.
- Until now, it looked as though Tiktok could see the lights go out in the US for at least one day on Sunday.
- According to a US law on foreign control of online platforms, the 270-day deadline for a change of ownership will then expire.
For Tiktok, a delay is looming just a few days before the impending shutdown in the USA. According to a confidant, President-elect Donald Trump wants to give himself more time to strike a deal for the video app. At the same time, the administration of outgoing head of state Joe Biden is also signaling that it does not want to implement a Tiktok blockade on his last day in office.
Until now, it looked as though Tiktok could see the lights go out in the US for at least one day on Sunday. According to a US law on foreign control of online platforms, the 270-day deadline for a change of ownership will then expire. If Tiktok is then still owned by the China-based Bytedance Group, the app will be removed from the American download platforms of Apple and Google and lose access to the infrastructure.
White House shows itself to be pliable
This would at least gradually render Tiktok unusable in the USA. In view of this prospect, the app operators were planning a quick end according to a media report: they were preparing to pull the plug themselves on Sunday, reported the website "The Information" a few days ago.
But it probably won't even be necessary. "Americans should not prepare for Tiktok to suddenly be banned on Sunday," an anonymous government representative told the TV station NBC. Options for the corresponding implementation of the law are being examined. The White House was even clearer on ABC: the deadline expires on a weekend on the day before the inauguration of the new president - "and it will be up to the next administration to enforce it".
What can the president do?
Biden can extend the deadline for Tiktok by three months by law. However, the prerequisite for this is that there are promising sales negotiations - and Tiktok and Bytedance have so far refused to talk about a separation at all. But the White House is signaling that Tiktok headlines should not overshadow Biden's last days in office.
The eagerly awaited ruling by the US Supreme Court on the Tiktok Act could therefore be less decisive than expected.
"Why would I want to get rid of Tiktok?"
Trump, who tried in vain to force the sale of Tiktok by threatening to ban it during his first term in office, has since discovered a soft spot for the platform. He was successful on Tiktok and was able to appeal to many young people there in the race for the White House, Trump emphasized. "Why would I want to get rid of Tiktok?"
Another sign of how highly the platform now ranks in Trump's favor: according to media reports, Tiktok boss Shou Chew will be sitting in the gallery at Trump's inauguration on Monday, along with the heads of the major American tech companies.
How should Tiktok continue to function?
The president also has to obey the law - but his camp is already exploring the legal leeway. "We will take measures to ensure that Tiktok does not run out," Trump's future National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News. This should give Trump more time to put a deal together.
Waltz himself voted in favor of the law last year as a Republican congressman. Just a year ago, he had said that China should be deprived of access to millions of Americans for propaganda and data collection.
Now Waltz is still asserting that Trump wants to protect the data of US users. "Conservatives certainly don't want Chinese communists getting their passwords and data and being able to influence the American people," he said.
Fear of espionage and influence peddling
In the US, there are warnings that the Chinese government could gain access to US users' data via Tiktok and misuse the platform for propaganda. Tiktok and Bytedance reject this. Members of Congress in the Senate and House of Representatives had received confidential briefings on the risks surrounding Tiktok, but the US government did not make the evidence of accusations against the app public.