TikTok ban in US threatens after Supreme Court ruling

The United States Supreme Court refused on Friday to suspend a law that could lead to a ban on the social media app TikTok as early as Sunday. The law orders Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19 due to “national security risks.”

If ByteDance does not sell the app before that date, the use of TikTok is not yet banned in the US. However, app stores are prohibited from offering the app, and updates are no longer allowed to be provided, which would cause TikTok to gradually function worse.

However, TikTok has announced that it does not want to wait for that – and will disable the app in the US on January 19. The intention is that users will then see a message about the law and an explanation of how they can download their personal data from TikTok. A day later, it is President Trump’s turn to be inaugurated.

The incoming Trump administration has announced that it wants to prevent TikTok from going off the air in the United States. Legally speaking, Trump cannot do anything to stop the law from taking effect.

Trump gives TikTok CEO honorary place

TikTok CEO Shou Chew had already received a special show of support from incoming President Donald Trump before the Supreme Court ruling: an invitation to attend his inauguration on Monday in a place of honor on the stage, it was reported. The New York Times Thursday.

In addition to former presidents, politicians, dignitaries and members of the Trump family, leaders of major tech companies such as Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) and Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla, Jeff Bezos (Amazon, Blue Origin) has also been invited.

Trump, who tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok in his first term, changed his mind last year. Not only has he asked the Supreme Court to temporarily suspend the law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as of January 19, he has also repeatedly praised the social medium. During his election campaign he appeared to receive a lot of support on the platform.

Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, called TikTok “a fantastic platform” on Fox News on Wednesday: “We’re going to find a way to preserve it while protecting people’s personal data.”

Fear that data from TikTok users will end up in the hands of the Chinese government was one of the reasons for Congress last year to pass the controversial law with a large majority and bipartisan support. The law stipulates that TikTok must be banned if the popular platform is not sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance to a non-Chinese buyer by January 19.

In the United States, TikTok has about 170 million users. ByteDance may be a Chinese company, but about 60 percent of its shares are owned by the American investment companies BlackRock and General Atlantic.

ByteDance has always said that it does not want to sell TikTok, and that it cannot sell it under Chinese law. That didn’t stop potential buyers from raising the money for a potential purchase and bidding on TikTok. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNBC that he had begun assembling a group of financiers. Real estate billionaire Frank McCourt is said to have submitted an offer to ByteDance. It is unclear whether a transaction is actually in the works.

Algorithm is worth billions

Opinions differ widely as to how much TikTok would be worth. TikTok’s algorithm is considered “the secret sauce” that makes the platform so successful. Lawyers for TikTok have stated that it is both technologically and commercially impossible for ByteDance to divest the platform. If the Chinese authorities were to agree to a sale of TikTok, this could never happen including the algorithm.

TikTok users will wonder what TikTok would actually be without the algorithm that determines what everyone sees in the personal selection app. But financial analyst Dan Ives told the AP that the platform could still generate $40 to $50 billion without the algorithm – and with the algorithm “well over $100 billion, and at best $200 billion.”




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