TikTok has until January 19, 2025 to find an American buyer, or risk being completely banned in the United States. Its Chinese owner, who has been fighting for its survival for many months, could see its international expansion suddenly slowed down.
On December 16, 2024, Shou Zi Chew, the boss of TikTok, had dinner with Donald Trump. The reason for this interview? Convince the president-elect to reverse the ban on TikTok, which will take effect on January 19, 2025 in the United States, by decision of Congress and the Senate.
Apple and Google have already received instructions to remove the application from their application stores, which seems to condemn TiKTok to an inevitable ban in the United States, which could in turn lead to its death in Europe and in the other Western countries.
TikTok banned on January 19, 2025: what is the situation in the United States?
In the United States, TikTok has been in the crosshairs of the authorities since 2020. At the time, it was Donald Trump who attacked the application, in a context of strong tensions between China and the United States. The ex-president wanted to force the sale of TikTok to Oracle or Microsoft within 45 days, if he did not want to be suddenly banned from the American market. The social network, which had started the process to be sold, had miraculously escaped, in particular because Donald Trump had his head elsewhere after his defeat in the 2020 election, which removed TikTok from his priorities.
A little more than two years later, under Joe Biden in March 2023, the American authorities once again decided to attack TikTok. The Congress vigorously denounced Shou Zi Chew, its boss, by accusing him of being a spy in the service of communist China. They implemented a new law called the RESTRICT Act, which allows the United States to sanction Chinese, Cuban, Iranian, North Korean, Russian and Venezuelan companies that offer services used by more than a million Americans, in the name of national security.
Their first target is obviously ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, which, with more than 170 million users, appears to be the number 1 reason for the creation of this law.
A year later, in March and April 2024, Congress and the Senate officially voted to ban TikTok. Joe Biden signed a law on April 24, 2024 forcing ByteDance to find an American buyer for its application, with the risk of simply being banned in the United States by January 19, 2025. This date is not final ( the American president has the power to postpone it for 90 days), but puts pressure on ByteDance. On January 20, if nothing changes, TikTok will have to be removed from the App Store and Play Store, and blocked from American networks.
An American ban on TikTok would lead to its death in France
Under the crosshairs of European authorities, who have notably singled it out for its TikTok Lite user remuneration system, ByteDance does not have a good reputation in Europe. The Chinese group is accused by several political representatives of “stunning” the youngest, with an application that it does not even offer in its own country. In China, TikTok does not exist: it is Douyin, with exclusively Chinese content, which is used.
If the United States banned TikTok, the application could gradually die in other Western countries. Firstly because the European Union, in a pro-regulation approach, could decide to follow the United States. Then because TikTok, without American creators, could lose 30% of its revenues and millions of content. Compared to Reels (Instagram, Facebook) or YouTube Shorts (Google), TikTok would thus lose its appeal.
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Donald Trump, the unexpected savior of TikTok ?
What are TikTok's chances of survival in the United States? In December 2024, the possibility of a sale seems unlikely. China, which agreed to submit to Donald Trump's ultimatum in 2020, does not intend to do the same four years later.
ByteDance wants to save TikTok and is increasing its appeals to stop its ban, in particular by appealing to the federal court, which has so far always sided against the Chinese company. TikTok filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on December 16 to delay the law, but its chances of success are low. TikTok cites in particular the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of expression for Americans, but which was not designed to protect the interests of a foreign company.
According to ByteDance, a sale of TikTok is “legally, technologically and financially” impossible. The company indicates that it would be impossible to cut the application in two, with the US TikTok on one side, and the Chinese TikTok on the other. This is not the speech she gave in 2020, which leads many observers to believe that this is above all a political decision by Beijing.
If the Supreme Court does not rule in favor of TikTok, the company's last hope is called… Donald Trump. The president-elect, during his campaign, indicated on several occasions that he supported TikTok to prevent the creation of monopolies like those of Meta, to which he has a deep disenchantment. Donald Trump even campaigned on TikTok, notably by using his YMCA dance, to appeal to young voters. He became an unexpected supporter of the Chinese company, even though he had tried to destroy it four years previously.
However, nothing says that Donald Trump will save TikTok. Since his election, the billionaire seems to have changed his mind. In an interview with NBC News on December 8, he indicated that the judges “ have the right to ban an app if you can prove that Chinese companies own it. Donald Trump admits that he no longer hates TikTok since he started using it, but does not wish to oppose justice. Its fight is against other American monopolies, too bad if TikTok pays the costs.
During his meeting with Donald Trump on December 16, 2024, Shou Zi Chew undoubtedly tried to save his company, by convincing the president-elect of his non-dangerous nature. Donald Trump invited Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, to his inauguration on January 20, 2025. This gesture of appeasement could be seen as good news for TikTok, but the American president's powers are limited. TikTok could eventually win reprieve, but its ban now seems inevitable.
