The Trump-Born-Trump Scenario for TikTok: Why the U.S. Can’t Let It Go
Trump backing TikTok is something of a maverick position in Washington. The law banning the app was supported by both Republicans and Democrats. The intelligence community during both the Trump and Biden administrations deemed TikTok a cyberthreat to the United States. Most national security experts agree that the relationship of TikTok to China is worrisome.
If the court allows the ban to go ahead—and Trump doesn’t find a way to stop it—the move will be an unprecedented technological clampdown in the country.
PAFACA doesn’t require anyone to uninstall TikTok from their phones. It doesn’t say that TikTok should stop working in the US. Instead, it tries to slow TikTok by making it harder to use over time and by stopping companies from providing services that help it keep working and quickly loading videos.
170 million people are estimated to use the app in the US, while a clash of free expression and the threat of China pose the nation’s security.
TikTok heads to the supreme court to challenge its U.S. ban. What to know? An amicus brief to the Supreme Court to challenge the First Amendment
Other middle-ground rulings can also be made. For instance, the Supreme Court could quibble with how the lower court reached its decision upholding the law and order the court to revise its opinion.
Trump will not have much to do if the court overturns the law. On the other hand, if the high court upholds the law, Trump has a number of options, including instructing his administration to not enforce it while he works on a deal.
While he is the incoming president, Trump wrote his December brief as a private citizen. He didn’t have any executive powers at the time and he cited no legal authority to make his request.
The lower court upheld the law, and it agreed that it has implications for free expression protections in the First Amendment. But, in a twist, that opinion held that blocking China from potentially being able to censor Americans’ speech was upholding the spirit of the First Amendment.
President-elect Donald Trump made his TikTok position official recently by filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, calling on the justices to delay any ruling until he enters office and can help negotiate a solution. Trump is optimistic he can lean into his deal-making skills and cut an agreement that would lead to TikTok’s U.S. enterprise being purchased by an American company or group of investors.
Other creators on the app are urging TikTokers to double down on competing video services, like YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram’s Reels, as a hedge against TikTok cratering in the United States.
Can the United States sell its U.S. business? Evidence from Chinese officials on horse-trading and China’s response to the Trump administration
While such horse-trading remains speculative, national security experts in touch with Chinese regulators have told NPR that Chinese officials appear to be warming up to this possibility.
Yet some analysts say it is possible that China will agree to the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business if the country can get something out of it, like trade concessions from the incoming Trump administration.