Trump’s victory could give TikTok a lifeline to stay in the US

After Donald Trump won the US presidency last week, tech CEOs incl Apple‘s Tim Cook, Meta‘s Mark Zuckerberg and AmazonJeff Bezos publicly praised the president-elect.

One name was clearly missing: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

His absence was notable given that of all the top tech companies, TikTok faces the most immediate and existential threat from the US government. In April, President Joe Biden signed a law requiring China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19. If ByteDance does not comply, internet hosting companies and app store owners such as Apple and Google will be banned from supporting TikTok, effectively banning it in the US

However, Trump’s return to the White House may provide a lifeline for Chew and TikTok.

Although both Republicans and Democrats supported the Biden TikTok ban in April, Trump voiced opposition to the ban during his candidacy. Trump acknowledged the national security and data privacy concerns with TikTok in a March interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” but he also said “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the app.

Trump also used TikTok’s shaky future in the US as a reason why people voted against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re not doing anything about TikTok, but the other side wants to shut it down, so if you like TikTok, go out and vote for Trump,” the president-elect said in a September post at his Truth Social Service.

Since the election, Trump has not publicly discussed his plans for TikTok, but Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNBC that the president-elect “will deliver.”

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to carry out the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok began to backfire after the president-elect met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and a major investor in the Chinese-owned social media app.

Yass’ trading firm Susquehanna International Group owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass retains a 7% stake in the company, worth about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported in March. It was that month too reported that Yass co-owned the company that merged with the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social.

If ByteDance doesn’t sell TikTok by the January deadline, Trump could potentially call on Congress to repeal the law, or he could introduce more “selective enforcement” of the law that would essentially allow TikTok to continue operating in the US without exposure for sanctions, said Sarah Kreps, a professor of government at Cornell University. “Selective enforcement” would mean police officers don’t always enforce every single case of jaywalking, she said.

At TikTok, meanwhile, Chew has been quiet since Trump’s victory, just as he had been in the run-up to Election Day.

The Chinese-owned company may be taking a neutral approach and a wait-and-see strategy for now, said Long Le, a Chinese business expert and associate professor at Santa Clara University.

Le said it’s hard to predict what Trump will do.

“He’s also a contrarian; that’s what makes him unpredictable,” Le said. “He can say one thing and the next year he’ll change his mind.”

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

When it comes to social media apps, Trump’s campaign comments suggest he’s more concerned about TikTok rival Meta.

In his March interview with “Squawk Box,” Trump said Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, poses a much bigger problem than TikTok. He also said that a TikTok ban would only benefit Meta, who he called “an enemy of the people.”

“Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections,” Trump said.

But Trump’s negative view of Meta may have changed after comments from the CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the past few months, Cornell’s Kreps said.

Zuckerberg described the image of Trump raising his fist after a failed assassination attempt in July as “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.” And after Trump’s victory, Zuckerberg congratulated him, saying he looked forward to working with the president-elect and his administration.

“My sense as an armchair psychologist for Trump is that he really likes people singing his praises, and so his view of Zuckerberg and Meta, I would imagine, has changed,” Kreps said. “He can then just revert to his American economic nationalism here and say, ‘Let’s protect American industry and go ahead with the Chinese ban.'”

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Maintaining support for the TikTok ban could also win Trump political favor with lawmakers worried about China’s global political and business influence, said Milton Mueller, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy.

“I don’t see him scoring big points politically by standing up for TikTok,” Mueller said, noting that few lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have opposed the ban.

Even if Trump gives a lifeline to TikTok, it’s unclear how much damage it would do to his administration, as many politicians are reluctant to publicly criticize him, Le said.

“They won’t challenge him because he’s just got so much power,” Le said.

Since launching his TikTok account in June, Trump has amassed over 14 million followers. Given his social media savvy, Trump may not want to make a decision that results in him losing the public attention and influence he has gained on TikTok, Le said.

CLOCK: TikTok is ‘digital nicotine’ for young people, says DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb