TikTok was only offline for 12 hours in the US before incoming president Donald Trump signalled that he would delay the nationwide ban of the Chinese-owned app.
Trump gave a 75 day reprieve for TikTok and its 170 million users after signing an executive order on his first day in office on Monday, with the extension giving the incoming administration “an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action”.
The initial terms of the ban, which was upheld by the Supreme Court last week, stated that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance needs to divest its ownership to a non-China-based company in order to negate concerns that the app is being used as a tool to spread propaganda through its algorithm, or collect private data from US citizens.
President Trump has suggested that selling just 50 per cent of the firm would be enough to avoid a ban, with prospective buyers currently including YouTuber MrBeast and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The bid from 26-year-old MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, comes after the internet star teamed up with a group of investors in an effort to save the app. The exact amount of the bid has not been made public, though Trump has floated a figure in the region of $1 trillion (£809bn).
In a video posted to TikTok last week, Mr Donaldson said he wanted a “seat at the table” in any discussions to buy the platform.
“I just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires,” he said. “TikTok, we mean business… We have an offer ready for you, we want to buy the platform, America deserves TikTok.”
Mr Musk has not publicly expressed any intention to buy TikTok, but President Trump said he was open to the SpaceX, Tesla and X boss to acquiring it.
“I would be, if he wanted to buy it,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners. So, what I am thinking about saying to somebody is, ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America’.”
The ban’s delay has been praised by TikTok and free speech advocates, who claimed that shutting down the app was a violation of the First Amendment, however others believe the executive order may itself be unconstitutional.
“President Trump’s executive order doesn’t save TikTok, it just makes the app entirely dependent on his whims and consolidates his power over the digital public sphere,” Ramya Krishnan, a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told The Independent.
“This isn’t a win for free speech and it certainly isn’t a win for the rule of law. Congress’s TikTok ban is terrible policy, but overriding a duly enacted law by executive fiat sets a dangerous and anti-democratic precedent.”
US law does not allow the president to overturn a law passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, however a delay is allowed if “significant progress” has been made towards following the law – in this case finding a buyer.
ByteDance is yet to publicly acknowledge its intention to sell TikTok, meaning Trump’s executive order could face legal challenges, even from within his own party.
“Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said on Sunday. “For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China.”
If the ban’s delay is not challenged, then any potential buyer has until 5 April to negotiate with ByteDance in order to fulfill Trump’s requirements and save TikTok.
