On paper, everything is very clear. Under a law passed last April, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is required to sell the American branch of the application by January 19 (one day before Donald Trump takes office), under penalty of total banishment from service across the Atlantic. But the future resident of the White House has become a supporter of this Chinese social network, and he wants to keep it in operation. Explanations.
“Billions and billions of views”
Present this weekend at AmericaFest, an annual conservative gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, Donald Trump spoke about the fate of TikTok. As usual, he began by discussing his personal case before drawing conclusions for America: “I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we went on TikTok, and we had a great response, with billions of views, billions and billions of views “.
He adds:
They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and looking at it, I was like, “Maybe we should keep this thing for a little while. moment.
Donald Trump has just met the CEO of TikTok and he immediately indicated that he had “a weakling” for this platform, always because of the good figures obtained by his account during the electoral campaign.
TikTok quickly fixed on its fate
Even if the president-elect apparently has no intention of banning TikTok, the near future remains fraught with pitfalls for the Chinese social network. Its owners are trying to cancel the application of this law and are contesting it before the Supreme Court, which should render its decision by January 19. If its opinion is unfavorable to ByteDance and the latter does not cede its activity in the United States, the service will have to be banned on American territory within a few weeks.
It would then be necessary to pass a new law to reverse this decision (which seems very complicated because Democrats and Republicans share an aversion to TikTok), unless Donald Trump manages to issue a temporary suspension of the application of the text (itself provided for in the law). In any case, this is a first hot issue for the president-elect. TikTok supports many content creators in the United States, and this Chinese service is regularly accused of being a threat to national security.
