TikTok's return in US comes with scrutiny over reach of Trump's powers

By Alexandra S. Levine and Kurt Wagner

 

Donald Trump pledged Sunday to delay enforcement of a national security law that threatened to ban TikTok, but it’s not clear that the app’s Chinese parent company has satisfied the requirements necessary to extend the deadline to find a possible buyer and avoid a permanent shutdown. 

 

There are also questions about whether the extension would be legal once the ban kicked in on Sunday. 

 

And while Trump gained praise from some TikTok users for the reprieve, he may face long-time skeptics in his own Republican Party about what they see as the app’s ongoing national security threat.

 

“I will issue an executive order on Monday 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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

 

His declaration, and other assurances made to TikTok’s service providers, was enough for TikTok to restore its popular video network, which had been taken down late the night before. 

 

The reprieve brokered by Trump may only be temporary, though. The law requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., to sell the service’s US business to a buyer approved by the US government. 

 

The law does allow Trump to extend the deadline for such a deal by up to 90 days, which he has said he’ll do on his first day in office, which begins Monday. But it’s not clear that TikTok and ByteDance have taken the steps toward an acquisition that are required to merit such an extension. 

 

Under the national security law, which was signed by President Joe Biden in April, Trump can grant TikTok more time to finalise a deal only by certifying to Congress that a “qualified divestiture” is in motion. He must show that there’s a viable path forward, that “significant progress” has been made toward a deal and that legal agreements are in place to close a deal with ByteDance in that new time frame, according to the law. 

 

Though there are some parties interested in acquiring TikTok’s US business, there is no known front-runner or public evidence that “significant progress” has been made on negotiations. ByteDance has maintained for the better part of a year that it is unwilling to sell TikTok at all, though that calculus could change now that a ban is finally imminent. 

 

Unless Trump and ByteDance can prove that a deal is in the works, it’s unclear if the president-elect’s executive order will succeed in keeping TikTok available. If Congress fails to certify Trump’s proposed extension, it could put tech companies like Apple Inc., Google and Oracle Corp. in a legal limbo since they could face significant fines for technologically supporting the app and offering it in their app stores.

 

Key Republican leaders have made clear that that they still expect ByteDance to sell TikTok despite Trump’s confidence in some type of solution. 

 

“There needs to be a sale, a full divestiture, from the Chinese Communist Party,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC’s Meet the Press. Senate intelligence chair Tom Cotton also said in social media post on X that there “was no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’” of the law’s effective date.

 

TikTok on Sunday displayed confidence to users, who remain unsure of the app’s future. 

 

“We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States,” the company said in a statement. 

 

What that solution is, whether it will be allowed by ByteDance and officials in China, and whether Congress will accept Trump’s demand for more time remain unclear.