TikTok went offline in the U.S. less than two hours before a ban was to go into effect, but services were restored after Donald Trump intervened, saying he would grant a 90-day extension before the app would need to be sold and suggesting that the U.S. would take a 50% stake in the app. However, ByteDance has previously said it was not prepared to sell. President Trump issued an Executive Order following his inauguration “to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security”. He added that the “order also confirms that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order”.
The company issued a statement saying: “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive. It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.” The incoming National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, also told CNN that Trump hasn’t ruled out continued Chinese ownership, with “firewalls to make sure that the data is protected here on U.S. soil”, The Guardian reported.
According to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, TikTok was to be banned and become unaccessible in the U.S. if it was not sold by its Chinese owners ByteDance by January 19. Ahead of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the ban on TikTok unless its Chinese owners sell it to a non-Chinese buyer, many American users of the app – calling themselves TikTok refugees – flocked to RedNote (Xiaohongshu in Chinese) as an alternative, where they were welcomed by Chinese users of the app. How long RedNote will remain a popular alternative remains to be seen as it is subject to Chinese content control regulations, which is not the case for TikTok. Denis Simon of the Quincy Institute, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank, warned that “if the rules don’t match the TikTok environment, users will quickly become disenchanted”. Describing the influx of Americans as “simply a kind of snub of the U.S. government”, Simon believed that “once Chinese legal and regulatory things kick in, it’ll probably put a bit of a damper on the growth trajectory after the short term”. TikTok boasts more than 170 million users in the U.S., while Xiaohongshu had over 300 million users in China as of December 2023. RedNote became the most downloaded app on the U.S. iOS app store and GooglePlay store. The second most downloaded app was Lemon8, another ByteDance-owned lifestyle platform, which is also experiencing a surge in traffic from displaced TikTok users.
In March 2024, China's Foreign Ministry said that the proposed TikTok ban puts the U.S. on the opposite side of the principle of fair competition and international economic and trade rules. “If so-called 'national security' reasons can be used to arbitrarily suppress other countries' outstanding companies, then there is no fairness or justice left. When one sees something good from others, the goal should not be to seize it for oneself – this is entirely a robber's logic,” the Ministry said. The Ministry stressed that the way the U.S. handles the TikTok issue will make the world see more clearly whether the so-called “rules” and “order” of the U.S. are truly beneficial to the world or only serve the interests of the U.S. itself.
TikTok Chief Executive Chew Shou Zi vowed that the company would “do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives”. He also thanked the President “for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States”. “TikTok is a place where people can create communities, discover new interests and express themselves, including over 7 million American businesses who earn a living and gain new customers using our platform,” he said. Trump called for the court’s decision to be respected, writing on social media: “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Chew met Trump last month and has been invited to his inauguration. Other attendees included Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, the most senior Chinese official to attend a U.S. presidential inauguration. Trump also discussed the issue when he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone on January 17, although details of their conversation have not been released. Trump posted that the call was a “very good one” for both China and the US. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects,” he wrote.
This overview is based on reports by The Guardian, the South China Morning Post, the China Daily and the Global Times.
