With just several days left before the US’s “divest-or-ban” law against TikTok comes into force, President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to suspend the law temporarily.
The suspension – to last 60 or 90 days – would give the Trump administration time to find a buyer for TikTok’s US operations, or to find another solution, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday (January 15).
The Information reported on Tuesday that ByteDance-owned TikTok is preparing for an immediate shutdown in the US on Sunday (January 19), the day the law comes into effect. Trump’s inauguration is scheduled to take place the next day.
The ban, passed by a large bipartisan majority in Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last year, gives TikTok an ultimatum: Sell the app’s US operations or face a ban in app stores and web hosting providers in the US.
TikTok says it has 170 million users in the United States.
The president-elect’s position on a TikTok ban has reversed entirely over the past year. During his first term as president, Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok, which was challenged in the courts. After Trump left office, President Joe Biden rescinded the order.
However, after joining TikTok during the 2024 presidential race and amassing 1 million followers within a day, the former and future president softened his stance and repeatedly vowed to “save TikTok.” Trump now has around 14 million followers on the platform.
Legal experts have questioned the Trump administration’s ability to delay or water down the TikTok law through executive orders.
Executive orders “are not magical documents,” former Justice Department national security adviser and University of Minnesota associate law professor Alan Rozenshtein told the Post.
“They’re just press releases with nicer stationery… TikTok will still be banned, and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it will make the president’s intention not to enforce the law that much more official.”
A central part of the divest-or-ban law requires TikTok to be removed from app stores, in effect making Apple and Google key enforcers of the law. During hearings on the law last week, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that Apple and Google would likely not take the risk of failing to comply with the ban.
Observers say TikTok’s last-ditch effort to overturn the law at the Supreme Court is unlikely to succeed. Last year, a federal court rejected TikTok’s argument that the law violates the First Amendment (freedom of speech) rights of American TikTok users.
With the shutdown looming, speculation has abounded about potential buyers for TikTok. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday (January 14) that Chinese officials are mulling selling the app to X/Twitter owner Elon Musk. However, TikTok denied this, calling the report “pure fiction.”
It’s also been reported that Kevin O’Leary, the celebrity/businessman known for his appearances on the reality show Shark Tank, is crafting a bid for TikTok with former L.A. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. A person “familiar with TikTok’s thinking” said O’Leary’s proposal is a “non-starter” and a “fairy tale,” the Post reported.
“TikTok will still be banned, and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it will make the president’s intention not to enforce the law that much more official.”
Alan Rozenshtein, University of Minnesota Law School
Other ideas proposed by Trump’s allies include reviving Project Texas, the Post reported. That’s a reform package floated a few years ago by TikTok that would give the US access to TikTok’s programming and hiring decisions, with the power to veto. The Biden administration has rejected that proposal, arguing it would not address the administration’s national security concerns.
There is also speculation that Trump could order his attorney general not to enforce the law. At a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday (January 15), Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, wouldn’t say whether she would enforce the TikTok ban, citing the ongoing litigation over the law, USA Today reported.
The Post also reported that some in Trump’s circle have suggested carving off pieces of TikTok and selling them, in order to satisfy the law’s condition that TikTok can avoid the ban if it engages in a “qualified divestiture,” a broad term that gives the president leeway for interpretation.
With tensions between China and Western countries growing – triggered in part by Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods during his first term – lawmakers in the US and elsewhere have been raising concerns about the national security implications of TikTok. China-headquartered parent company ByteDance, like all businesses in China, is required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services.
Despite this, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has long argued that US users’ data is not being shared with the Chinese government.Music Business Worldwide
