With a law declaring the social media application TikTok illegal in the United States, set to take effect on Sunday, the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is signaling that it plans to try to find a way to prevent the service from going offline.
Under the federal law, the service's parent company, China-based ByteDance, must either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese firm or see it banned in the U.S.
Representative Mike Waltz, who has been tapped to serve as Trump's national security adviser, told Fox News on Thursday that the president-elect has options available to postpone enforcement of the law while a possible deal is worked out to sell the company. That includes a section of the law allowing the president to give ByteDance a 90-day extension to finalize a sale.
"We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark," Waltz said, "as long as a viable deal is on the table. Essentially that buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going."
Executive action reportedly considered
Also on Wednesday, several media outlets reported that Trump is considering issuing an executive order that would protect TikTok.
The legality of such a move is unclear and is thrown further into doubt by the fact that the Supreme Court ruled Friday upholding the federal law banning TikTok.
Trump's attitude toward TikTok has evolved considerably over the years. During his first term in office, he attempted to shut the service down in the U.S. Since then, though, he has used the service, with considerable success, to connect with his supporters.
In a press conference in Florida last month, Trump said, "I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," and credited the app with helping him get his message out to younger American voters.
Trump has denied that his change of heart about TikTok was influenced by a brief meeting in March with Republican megadonor and ByteDance investor Jeff Yass. Lobbying disclosure reports from 2024 show that ByteDance paid a former Trump campaign aide to lobby lawmakers in Washington in favor of TikTok, and that former senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has been paid to advocate for TikTok in Congress via the Yass-funded conservative group Club for Growth.
Trump also said TikTok was not mentioned during his meeting with Yass.
Economic concerns
In the years since TikTok took off, thousands of U.S.-based content creators have developed large audiences on the app, and in many cases have been able to monetize their TikTok feeds.
Many small businesses have found success advertising their products to TikTok users. Other TikTok personalities have parlayed fame on the app into broader celebrity that has led to lucrative product endorsements and other deals.
Some members of Congress have expressed concern that abruptly shutting the app down could have economic consequences.
On Monday, Democratic Senator Edward Markey introduced legislation that would delay the TikTok ban by 270 days.
"Let me be clear: TikTok has its problems," Markey said in a statement released by his office. "Like every social media platform, TikTok poses a serious risk to the privacy and mental health of our young people. I will continue to hold TikTok accountable for such behavior. But a TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen."
Viability of sale unclear
As the Sunday deadline nears, there have been a number of rumors about a possible sale of the company. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Chinese officials were considering the possibility of selling the service to billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser who already owns the social media service X, formerly Twitter.
Another U.S. billionaire, real estate developer Frank McCourt, told Reuters on Thursday that a consortium of investors he had formed has already made a formal offer to purchase TikTok, valuing the service at $20 billion.
However, it is far from clear that a sale is something the Chinese government is prepared to allow. Any sale worth the buyer's investment would have to include the "recommendation engine," TikTok's name for the algorithm that makes the service so popular and, many would say, addictive.
Last year in a court filing, TikTok characterized such a deal as unavailable.
"Just as the United States restricts the export of U.S.-origin technologies (e.g., certain computer chips), the Chinese government regulates the transfer of technologies developed in China," the company argued in a court filing. "The Chinese government has made clear in public statements that it would not permit a forced divestment of the recommendation engine."
Privacy, national security worries
A wildly popular service for sharing short videos, TikTok has an estimated 170 million U.S. users. Federal officials have been concerned about TikTok for years because it collects vast amounts of information about its user base. They have argued that Chinese laws compelling domestic companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies could be used to force the company to share that data with the Chinese Communist Party.
U.S. officials have expressed concern that China could misuse the private information about U.S. users of the service. They have also warned that Beijing could use TikTok's powerful recommendation algorithm to shape public discourse in the U.S. to the benefit of China.
In December, when a federal appeals court upheld the law mandating the company's sale or shutdown, Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, one of the original sponsors of the law, released a statement expressing the thoughts of many of the law's supporters.
"With today's opinion, all three branches of government have reached the same conclusion: ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and TikTok's ownership by ByteDance is a national security threat that cannot be mitigated through any other means than divestiture," Krishnamoorthi said.
"Every day that TikTok remains under the Chinese Communist Party's control is a day that our security is at risk," Krishnamoorthi added.