When TikTok shut down its service early Sunday morning, it added a politically aligned notice to disappointed users. “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated he is willing to work with us on a solution to bring TikTok back after he takes office.”
TikTok may have more than 170 million fans in the United States, but only one of them is speaking for these purposes. The ego-boosting message was clear for the man who once famously proclaimed, “Only I can fix it.” And corporate political appeals, especially naked appeals like this one, rarely yield such immediate results.
By mid-morning Sunday, Trump vowed to actually fix the problem. “I will issue an executive order on Monday that will extend the period before the law’s ban goes into effect and allow us to reach agreements to protect the public’s safety.” “
Trump also explained his latest idea in the vaguest of terms. The idea is to restructure TikTok as a 50-50 “joint venture” between existing Chinese owner ByteDance and some kind of U.S. company. While appealing on the surface, it’s unclear whether it would meet the obligations of any law Congress passes and President Biden bans, unless the company and its algorithms are under U.S. control.
It’s also unclear whether the national security concerns inherent in creating TikTok’s algorithm – which monitors users’ choices and chooses what is shown next – in China can be addressed.
But it was impressive politics in every way. By shutting down its app Saturday night and briefly Sunday morning, TikTok gave its loyal users a clear picture of what the world would be like without it. (It’s not hard to imagine. It first broke into American Airlines phones in 2016, just two months before Trump was first elected.) I created it. That could give him a jump-start, at least a temporary fix, on his way to a rally of supporters in Washington on Sunday afternoon.
It’s no surprise that TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chu, was scheduled to attend the inauguration, and was seated at the podium, at least before it was moved to the U.S. Capitol due to the cold weather. He is unlikely to be the only tech executive in the world. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are also expected to attend.
For TikTok, Trump’s reversal in recent months — from a man determined to ban the app to a man determined to save it — has been nothing short of miraculous. On Sunday morning, just as Trump handed down the app’s suspension, incoming National Security Adviser Michael Walz said, given all the national security concerns, “This is a great app. 170 million Americans It’s something we’re having fun with, and we’re not only going to save TikTok, but we’re going to protect the American people’s data and protect it from any influence, whether it’s a sellout or a firewall, to make sure it’s protected here. I am confident that we can do so on American soil.”
He seemed to foresee Trump’s strategy. The idea is to come up with a solution that meets the provisions of a law that, as of Sunday, makes it illegal to “distribute, maintain, or update” any “applications controlled by a foreign adversary.” There are exemptions, especially when it comes to designing the algorithms that make TikTok work, if the president determines that the app is “no longer controlled by a foreign adversary.”
Does Trump’s 50/50 joint venture meet that definition? it depends. It hardly helps if ByteDance remains the owner and developer of the algorithm, and that algorithm was created in China by Chinese engineers.
The national security concerns that motivated the passage of this law stemmed from concerns that algorithms could be controlled by the Chinese government or that Chinese authorities could access users’ data and location information. Ta. And, of course, there are fundamental concerns that this algorithm is covertly designed to influence what Americans see on their phones.
No one yet knows what the joint venture will look like. Mr. Trump’s inaccurate language made it unclear whether the U.S. partner was a private company or the government itself. But clearly the president-elect was pleased that his first encounter with China included an agreement, and by the time he arrived at the Capital One Center late Sunday afternoon for his pre-inauguration rally, he was all set. He boasted that he had a lot of influence.
After pointing out that the app has helped him do surprisingly well in elections among young voters (at least for Republicans), he declared: I hope you had a good experience? ”
After the cheers died down, he indicated that the United States would not pay for 50 percent of the company’s stake. ByteDance will hand over half of the company in exchange for presidential approval to operate. “Whether you like TikTok or not, we’re going to make a lot of money,” he said, without citing national security concerns.
If such a development were to occur, it would amount to at least an unusual commercial transaction, in the way governments sell leases to drill for oil and gas, or space on the electromagnetic spectrum to telecommunications companies. very similar to
However, they are all details and subject to change. For now, Trump has been able to soak in messages appearing on the TikTok app after service was restored in the afternoon, just before heading to a rally. On a day when nothing had actually changed, no executive orders had been signed yet, no solutions to national security problems had been found, just ideas floating around, TikTok asked the next president to gave credit.
“Thank you for your patience and support,” the notice said. “TikTok is back in the US as a result of President Trump’s efforts!”
