By Kenneth Li and Katie Paul
(Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump is expected to give TikTok more time to reach a deal after he returns to power on Monday as China signaled it would be open to a deal to keep TikTok in the U.S. market.
The short-form video service used by 170 million Americans was briefly shut down for US users on Saturday, hours before a law took effect on Sunday saying Chinese owner ByteDance must sell it for national security reasons. US officials have said there is a risk of misuse of Americans’ data under ByteDance.
TikTok restored access on Sunday and thanked Trump for providing assurances to TikTok and its business partners that they would not face heavy fines to keep the app running. The app and website were up and running on Monday, but TikTok was still not available for download in the Apple (NASDAQ: ) and Google (NASDAQ: ) app stores, suggesting the two companies are waiting for clearer legal assurances.
“Frankly, we have no choice. We have to save it,” Trump said at a rally on Sunday ahead of his inauguration, adding that the US would seek a joint venture to bring back the app used by half of Americans.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended a service with Trump at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday. John in Washington. Chew was joined by several Big Tech CEOs, including Amazon.com (NASDAQ: ) founder Jeff Bezos, Meta (NASDAQ: ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
The company also sponsored Sunday’s inaugural party, hosted by conservative youth organizers and dating groups.
Trump previously said he would issue an executive order for TikTok to delay the ban after he takes office, a promise TikTok made in a notice posted to users of the app.
This comes after China indicated for the first time that it would be open to a transaction that would keep TikTok operating in the US
When asked about the reinstatement of the app and Trump’s desire for a deal, China’s foreign ministry said at a regular news briefing on Monday that it believed companies should make “independent decisions” about their operations and business.
“TikTok has been operating in the US for many years and is very popular with US users,” ministry spokesman Mao Ning said. “We hope that the US can seriously listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory business environment for companies operating there.”
‘SAVING TIKTOK’
The TikTok debate comes at a tense time in US-China relations. Trump has said he intends to impose tariffs on China, but has also indicated he hopes to have more direct contact with the Chinese leader.
Trump’s rescue of TikTok represents a reversal of his stance from his first term. In 2020, he intended to ban the app due to concerns that the company was sharing Americans’ personal information with the Chinese government. More recently, Trump said he has a “warm place in his heart for TikTok,” crediting the app with helping him win over young voters in the 2024 presidential election.
In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell TikTok, but then blessed a deal structured as a partnership rather than a divestiture that would have included both Oracle (NYSE: ) and Walmart (NYSE: ) taking stakes in the new company.
Not everyone in Trump’s Republican Party was on board with efforts to circumvent the law and “save TikTok.”
Republican Senators Tom and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement: “Now that the bill has gone into effect, there is no legal basis for any ‘extension’ of its effective date. In order for TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to the sale which meets the legal requirements for qualified asset forfeiture by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China.”
The US has never banned a major social media platform. The law passed by an overwhelming majority in Congress gives the new Trump administration the power to ban or require the sale of other Chinese-owned apps.
