“In the US, TikTok has about 170 million followers”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
According to him, during this time, the US will not implement the law passed by Congress last year and signed by former President Joe Biden.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on January 20, Trump explained why he changed his mind after trying to ban TikTok in 2020 and said he was “forced to use it.”
He floated the possibility of a joint venture to run the company, saying he was looking for a 50-50 partnership between the United States and its Chinese owner ByteDance. But he didn’t provide any details on how that might work.
On January 18, the TikTok social network became unavailable to American users, hours before the law banning TikTok in the United States took effect.
And already on January 19, the social network announced the resumption of work in the United States. TikTok called Trump’s position a support for the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects free speech, and added that it plans to work with him “on a long-term solution that will keep TikTok in the United States.”
Read also: Potential ban on TikTok. What does this mean for US-China competition?
According to the law, the social network TikTok had until January 19 to sever ties with its parent company ByteDance, which is based in China, or to cease operations in the United States to “allay concerns that it poses a threat to national security.”
In the US, TikTok has about 170 million followers.
U.S. authorities fear that TikTok may transfer data about American users to China. Under China’s 2014 Counterintelligence Law, companies cannot refuse to collect data necessary for an investigation. In addition, the national intelligence law passed in 2017 obliges local companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies. At the same time, TikTok, like ByteDance, is legally registered in the Cayman Islands, and its central offices are located in Singapore and Los Angeles.
According to Bloomberg, the Chinese authorities are considering the option of transferring the management of TikTok in the United States to Elon Musk in order to get it out of the ban. In TikTok, the possibility of selling Musk’s social network is categorically rejected.