President-elect Donald J. Trump is considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating despite a pending legal ban until new owners are found, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The possible executive order, previously reported by the Washington Post, is under discussion as TikTok expires on Sunday to be banned in the United States unless it finds a new owner. The popular video sharing app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Republicans have said for years that they view the app, downloaded on millions of smartphones, as a national security risk. It has become a rare issue that has united both parties in Congress.
If the Supreme Court upholds the law, which will ban the app unless ByteDance sells it to a non-Chinese company, special treatment from Trump could be the only way for TikTok to continue operating in the United States anytime soon. term. The law requires app store operators like Apple and Google and cloud computing providers to stop distributing TikTok in the United States.
An executive order could attempt to order the government not to enforce the law or delay its enforcement to complete a deal, a move former presidents have used to challenge the laws. It’s unclear whether an executive order would survive legal challenges or convince app stores and cloud computing companies to take steps that could expose them to huge fines.
Alan Z. Rozenshtein, a former national security adviser at the Justice Department and professor at the University of Minnesota School of Law, said an executive order should be “taken with a medium-sized rock of salt.” Such an order is not a law, he said, and legally would not change legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Biden.
While there’s speculation that the app will still work if it’s already been downloaded, the law also affects Internet hosting companies like Oracle and other cloud computing providers, and it’s unclear how video loading times and computer functionality might respond. ‘app.
A person close to Trump’s team said some of his allies have had vague discussions about buying TikTok, but provided no details. Mr Biden, whose term expires on Monday, a day after the ban took effect, is also under pressure to find a way to save the app.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday and has been offered a seat on stage. TikTok declined to comment.
Mr. Chew is expected to be joined by other technology executives on stage: Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Meta; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Elon Musk, Trump’s megadonor; and Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who personally donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.
Trump had previously supported a TikTok ban, but publicly changed his position last year, soon after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who owns a large stake in ByteDance.
Mr. Trump said they did not discuss the company. But Mr. Yass helped found the trading firm Susquehanna International Group and is a major backer of the conservative lobby group Club for Growth. The group has hired people linked to Trump, such as Kellyanne Conway, his former top adviser, and Republican adviser David Urban, to pressure TikTok in Washington.
TikTok also worked to make its way onto the Trump team through Tony Sayegh, who was a Treasury official during Trump’s first administration and now leads public affairs for Susquehanna.
Mr. Sayegh has ties to the Trump family and was a key part of the campaign’s decision to join TikTok this summer. Several family members, including Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kai Trump, the president-elect’s niece, have also joined the app.
Trump’s interest in TikTok isn’t entirely due to his advisors. He came to see the effectiveness of videos about him on the platform, and his advisers credited them with helping him expand his reach to a new type of voter during the campaign.
Any action Trump might take on TikTok is complicated. The law gives the president the ability to extend the deadline for a sale only if there is “significant progress” toward a deal that would put the company in the hands of a non-Chinese owner.
It also requires that the agreement can be completed within 90 days of the extension. It’s unclear exactly how the extension will work if Trump tries to implement it after the ban takes effect.
TikTok has argued throughout its court challenge that such a sale is impractical in part because of the prescribed time period. In recent months, a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt has launched a bid to buy the app, albeit without its powerful algorithm.
Trump could also try to circumvent the law by ordering the government not to enforce it.
But app store operators and cloud computing providers may require more than just an assurance from Trump that he won’t punish them if they don’t comply with the ban, said Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law. The potential legal liability for companies that violate the law is significant: Fines are up to $5,000 per person who is able to use TikTok once the ban goes into effect.
“You could have a policy not to enforce this ban,” said Calo, who was among a group of professors who urged the Supreme Court to overturn the TikTok law. “But I think maybe conservative companies would just say, ‘OK, you’re not going to enforce that. But it’s on the books and you could impose it at any time.’”
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, has declined to say whether she will enforce the law.
“I cannot discuss pending litigation,” he said during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday. “But I will talk to all the career prosecutors handling the case.”
Trump has a third option: appeal to Congress to reverse a policy that passed overwhelmingly with broad bipartisan support last year.
“Congress can undo this at any time,” Calo said.