The problem seems set to decrease TikTok, at least for now: the app is back up and running in the United States last night, after that Donald Trump he said he wanted to suspend for three months the ban on the activity. More precisely, Trump announced his intention to issue an executive order to suspend the law that bans the platform in the US and proposed that the social network is 50% owned by US shareholders to offer a way out to its Chinese owner.
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is restoring service“, the platform said in a statement thanking Trump for “providing much-needed clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will not face penalties (for) providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and enabling over 7 million small businesses to thrive.” “We will work with Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States,” it added.
TikTok stopped working for its 170 million American users late Saturday night, before the ban went into effect on Sunday. law, approved by Congress in 2024, which provides for its closure for national security reasons. U.S. officials had warned that with the Chinese parent company ByteDance there was a risk of misuse of Americans' data.
Trump even encouraged internet providers and app stores to immediately restore access to TikTok, promising that his order would retroactively protect them from sanctions. The law provides for very steep fines for these technical service providers, up to $5.000 per user for app stores. “I am calling on companies to not leave TikTok in the dark,” the US president urged on his social network Truth.
Trump Wants Control of ByteDance
The law provides that the head of state postpones the application for 90 days waiting for find a buyer, an alternative offered to TikTok's parent company, China ByteDance, instead of the ban. So far, ByteDance has refused to sell the platform, which launched just ten years ago and has become a must-have for the vast majority of young Internet users.
Trump also revealed the outlines of what he considers a solution to the sensitive issue of Chinese control of TikTok's US subsidiary. “I would like to see a j 50% American-owned,” Trump wrote. “Without American approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth several hundred billions, if not trillions.” As it stands, TikTok has disappeared from app stores, and internet users who have already downloaded it can no longer open it.
The mood has changed towards TikTok
As a last resort for TikTok, on Friday the United States Supreme Court unanimously refused to suspend the law. The nine-judge bench found that Congress’s “national security concerns” were “well-founded.” U.S. elected officials had justified voting in favor of the law by saying it was necessary to prevent Chinese authorities from accessing American user data or manipulating public opinion in the United States.
But if a year ago the platform was the object of real hostility from many US politicians, since then the situation has changed and in recent days a political consensus has emerged in favor of preserving the platform. In theory, it is possible to postpone the entry into force of the law only if there are tangible elements that make a sale credible.
If anything, the issue is whether Trump has thelegal authority to go back: The law passed by the US Congress, and not rejected by the Supreme Court, specifies that the president of the United States can activate an extension only if he certifies to Congress that there are “binding legal agreements” for the sale of TikTok by ByteDance.
The suitors come forward
The businessman Frank McCourt has said it is ready to put up $20 billion, along with other partners, for the app's U.S. operations, without its powerful algorithm. Yesterday, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Perplexity AI has presented ByteDance with a merger proposal with TikTok's U.S. subsidiary, which would value the social network at at least $50 billion.
In addition to TikTok, all of ByteDance's apps in the United States have been taken offline, including another social network, Lemon8, to which desperate users had migrated. Today, many TikTokers have lamented the disappearance of their favorite app, highly regarded for the effectiveness of its algorithm in providing relevant content.
Zach King, one of the ten most followed TikTokers in the world (82 million subscribers), posted a humorous video on YouTube that portrays him leaving TikTok for the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu, currently the most downloaded app on Apple. Edison Chen, founder of the TikTok competitor, Clapper, he declared to theAFP that the app has been downloaded more than two million times in the past few days. Among the most downloaded apps in the US today were several VPN companies, which use software to fool websites and app stores into believing a user's location.
