President Trump threw TikTok a lifeline Monday night time, giving the favored app’s mother or father firm 75 extra days to discover a purchaser for the platform.
The 78-year-old argued throughout a dialog with reporters within the Oval Workplace that the US ought to “get half” of TikTok, earlier than caveating that some share of that might be from the personal sector.
Beijing-based ByteDance had a Jan. 19 deadline to dump the platform resulting from nationwide safety issues or have it’s pulled from US-based app shops like Apple and Google Play.
ByteDance refused to promote, saying it could somewhat shut TikTok down fully.
Congress handed the “divest-or-ban” laws in April of final yr in April of final yr and it was signed into legislation by President Biden, responding to issues from nationwide safety specialists concerning the platform giving the Chinese language Communist Occasion entry to an enormous trove of American person information.
These specialists have additionally raised issues about TikTok being weaponized as a propaganda instrument in opposition to the US.
The Supreme Courtroom upheld the pressured divestiture legislation Jan. 17.
Throughout his first administration, Trump had taken government motion to ban Tiktok that was shot down by the courts.
Since then, the president had a change of coronary heart, crediting TikTok for serving to him make inroads with youthful voters throughout the 2024 marketing campaign. Trump had additionally been pressed on the problem by GOP megadonor Jeff Yass, who owns 7% of ByteDance.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew obtained a prized seat within the Capitol Rotunda for Trump’s swearing-in, a privilege that governors and different key officers weren’t afforded.
Trump’s stance on TikTok has put him at odds with China hawks within the GOP, corresponding to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who backed the ban, although they’ve been cautious to not castigate the president publicly.
TikTok briefly went offline Saturday night time into Sunday — ostensibly as a result of ban, despite the fact that the sale deadline had not been reached. It later got here again on-line after Trump unveiled his plans to intervene, with critics accusing the app of participating in a publicity stunt.
The platform estimates that it has a person base of about 170 million within the US, however as Trump advised reporters Monday night time: “TikTok is nugatory if I don’t approve it.”
Supply hyperlink
