TikTok Faces Forced Sale Deadline... "Trump Likely to Save It"

"Trump Highly Values TikTok's Political Impact"
Possibility of Congress Pressure to Extend Sale Deadline

As the deadline for the sale of TikTok's U.S. business rights approaches, there are expectations that President-elect Donald Trump will step in to provide relief.

The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 12th (local time), "Trump promised to protect TikTok during his campaign," adding, "Sources familiar with the matter believe that if necessary, Trump will intervene to lift the ban on TikTok."

AFP Yonhap News

During his first term, President-elect Trump issued an executive order declaring a national emergency, stating that "TikTok is a channel through which China tracks the locations of federal employees and contractors and conducts corporate espionage." However, during this year's election campaign, he opened a TikTok channel to communicate with younger voters, attracting 14 million followers, and on his social media platform Truth Social, he turned into a TikTok advocate by saying, "Americans who want to save TikTok should vote for Trump."

Kellyanne Conway, a former White House advisor and one of Trump’s closest aides, emphasized, "Trump highly values TikTok's influence, which helped lead to his election victory alongside podcasts and new media," adding, "Besides alienating 180 million American TikTok users every month, there are various ways to hold China accountable."

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, must sell its U.S. business rights by January 19 next year, the day before President-elect Trump's inauguration, in accordance with the bipartisan 'TikTok Ban Act' passed in April. However, since ByteDance has filed a constitutional lawsuit against the TikTok Ban Act, the deadline is likely to be postponed until after Trump's inauguration. Moreover, the law allows the president to extend the sale deadline by 90 days, giving ByteDance some leeway for now.

Former U.S. Department of Justice National Security Advisor Alan Rosenshtein explained that with the Republican Party expected to control both the House and Senate, Trump has the leverage to pressure Congress to repeal the TikTok Ban Act or advise the new Attorney General to halt law enforcement. However, he pointed out that other big tech companies subject to the law’s regulations, such as Apple and Google, might raise fairness concerns by objecting to special treatment for TikTok.

The fact that the foreign and security officials in Trump’s second-term cabinet are hardliners on China is also seen as a variable. Senator Marco Rubio, a close diplomatic ally nominated as the next Secretary of State, wrote in a 2022 WP op-ed that "TikTok grants the Chinese government a unique ability to surveil American youth," and argued that "this potential spyware must be banned before it is too late." Kristi Noem, the 'immigration hardliner' appointed as the next Secretary of Homeland Security and governor of South Dakota, is known as the first governor to ban TikTok use on state-owned devices.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.