At midnight on Sunday, it was determined that it was illegal for the communist Chinese social media app TikTok to operate in the United States. The closure was required by Public Law 118-50, a section of which is the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. However, President Trump confused the legal requirement when he promised an executive order in a social media post on Monday to give TikTok a 90-day grace period from the shutdown and guarantee that U.S. companies that have cooperated to To keep TikTok running, hold harmless, see TikTok comes back from obscurity after Trump issues executive order – RedState.
His goal is not to ban TikTok, but to partner with the Chinese government.
I would like the United States to have a 50% stake in a joint venture. This is how we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and let it have its say. There is no Tik Tok without US approval. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – perhaps trillions.
So my first thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or recent owners, with the US receiving a 50% interest in a joint venture formed between the US and our chosen purchaser.
The story of this act is essential. It goes back to a Executive Order 2019 by President Trump restricting TikTok’s operations in the US; this order was given later dejected in court. Trump tried again with a divestment order under the Defense Production Act. Before that decision could be challenged in court, Joey Softserve arrived on the scene and, it was said, undid Trump’s work. From March 2024Trump had changed course and supported allowing TikTok to continue operating in the US. Congress’s ban on TikTok sailed to a clear victory with bipartisan majorities in both houses; It Happened: US House Passes Landmark TikTok Ban Amid Growing Data Security Concerns – RedState.
In response to the social media post, it looks like it’s TikTok Resumption of operations.
Less than a day after popular social media platform TikTok went offline for users across the United States, the company said it has now resumed the service.
“Thank you for your patience and support,” it said Sunday as users opened the app. “Thanks to President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US.”
The gigantic question is whether Trump has the legal authority to stop enforcement of the federal law that was supposed to shut down TikTok.
Trump invokes a 90-day extension, but the law allows for some pretty clear guidelines on the requirements for this measure; see page 956 of the link.
(3) EXTENSION. – With respect to an application controlled by a foreign adversary, the President may grant a one-time extension of not more than 90 days with respect to the date on which this subsection otherwise applies pursuant to paragraph (2), if the President certifies to Congress that –
(A) a path to effecting a qualified disposition has been identified for this application;
(B) with respect to this application, evidence has been submitted of significant progress in completing such qualified divestiture; And
(C) The appropriate binding legal agreements exist to permit the completion of such qualified disposition during the period of such extension.
There is no “path to effecting a qualified divestiture.” There is no progress in divesting TikTok; In fact, TikTok said on Friday that this will be the case be closed if the law is enforced. There are no “relevant binding legal agreements”. More importantly, Trump’s proposed solution of the US acquiring an equity stake and becoming a partner in ByteDance is contrary to the stated purpose of the law, which is to require ByteDance to divest the platform.
Even the congressmen who support Trump the most say this ploy requires one Change in law. Jim Jordan made this point on CNN Sunday.
“It seems to me that if you want to do anything other than someone else buying TikTok and ByteDance no longer owning it, you need a change in the law. And if that’s warranted, then I think Congress will look at it under President Trump’s leadership,” Jordan said in an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Jordan’s voice sounds pretty lonely at this point. Mike Johnson was very clear.
Spokesman Mike Johnson on Sunday refuted the notion that President-elect Donald Trump would bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company’s willingness to sell to a U.S.-based owner.
“I think we’re going to enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after Trump told NBC News he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to operate in the USA
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Tom Cotton and Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts issued a joint statement which Trump explicitly did not mention, but was just as clear about his proposal.
“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft for following the law and ceasing operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same.” Ultimately, the law poses the risk of ruinous bankruptcy for any company that violates it. Now that the law has come into force, there is no legal basis for any “extension” of its entry into force[meine Kursivschrift].[myitalics}[myitalics} In order for TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that meets legal requirements for a qualified divestiture and breaks all ties between TikTok and Communist China. Only then will Americans be protected from the sedate threat to their privacy and security posed by a communist-controlled TikTok.”
Honestly, I see no reason not to grind ByteDance’s fellow student face into gravel. It has already been said that a divestment is off the table. If it were to let TikTok, which is worth billions of dollars, die instead of selling it, then that shows that its true purpose was never to make money. It’s as difficult to imagine as a company that Trump castigated in 2020: “TikTok automatically collects vast amounts of information from its users, including internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories.” This data collection threatens to make this possible the Chinese Communist Party’s access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information – which would potentially allow China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, dossiers containing personal information for “Creating blackmail and engaging in corporate espionage” – gets better without changing the underlying problem; see To TikTok or not to TikTok? For conservatives, the answer is clear: RedState.
Trump may be able to save the Chinese Communist Party on this issue, but given the razor-thin majorities, especially in the Senate, it’s difficult to see how the law banning TikTok will change in the next 90 days if there is real business to be done…or why he wanted to try.
