Chinese-owned app has said it will shut down on Sunday, the deadline for a sale
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the TikTok sell-or-ban law on Friday, just two days before the January 19 deadline for the video sharing app to decouple from its Chinese Communist Party-controlled parent company. Hours earlier, on Thursday night, the Biden administration said it would not enforce the ban, leaving the app’s fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump.
The High Court’s decision was widely expected after justices from across the ideological spectrum agreed during arguments held last week that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, lacks a fundamental right to free speech in America and could exploit the personal data of more than 170 million American TikTok users.
Still, what happens next is unclear. While TikTok announced it would shut down on Sunday if the Supreme Court did not nullify the sell-or-ban law, that deadline falls on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, and the president-elect is reportedly considering an executive order that would suspend the law’s implementation by 60 or 90 days. The law allows the Justice Department to level fines of up to $5,000 per user on app stores and internet hosting services, such as Apple and Google, that provide services to TikTok.
Even if Trump issues an executive order delaying the deadline, such an order could face legal challenges. The sell-or-ban law passed with broad bipartisan support, and Trump could not entirely undo it via executive order, though he could signal that he would not fine companies that provide services to TikTok. Just before the Supreme Court announced its decision, Trump issued a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he “spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China” about “balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects.”
Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.), the chairman of the House Committee on the CCP, said Friday that Trump understands the threat of a CCP-controlled TikTok and blamed the app’s Chinese owner for refusing to come to the table on a sale.
While “there are numerous American buyers who are willing to pay tens of billions so you can continue to use the app you love,” Moolenaar told TikTok users, “it is the Chinese Communist Party, which controls TikTok’s owner ByteDance, that is refusing to come to the table.”
Amid the uncertainty and last-minute wrangling, TikTok’s 170 million American users are flocking to alternative CCP-controlled social media apps, including RedNote, which is known in China as Xiaohongshu, the Mandarin term for Mao Zedong’s “little red book.”
Incoming White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News on Wednesday that his team will “find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data.” In the Senate, Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey floated legislation that would allow TikTok to operate under ByteDance’s control for another 270 days. But Markey’s bill, the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, would need unanimous consent to hit the Senate floor. Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) objected to the legislation, meaning it will not receive a vote before Sunday.
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
