TikTok made good on its threat. Due to a lack of guarantees from the Biden government, the Chinese platform disconnected its platform on Saturday in the United States, while indicating that Donald Trump “will work on a solution” for the “restore”. “A law banning TikTok has been implemented in the United States”, says a message when attempting to connect. “This means you can no longer use TikTok for now.” “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to restore TikTok once he takes office”the text continues. “Stay tuned!”
The message referred to a site which offered TikTokers the opportunity to download all of their data and content posted so far. An application that has become a social phenomenon in less than 10 years, extremely popular with young people, even very young Internet users, TikTok is no longer visible on the digital stores of Apple and Google in the United States.
Since Friday, TikTok had urged the Biden government to send a clear signal to internet providers and application store managers to dissuade them from suspending downloads and updates. Earlier Friday, the White House estimated that “law enforcement (had to) return to the next governmentwho will take office on Monday”according to a statement from spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre. This text was passed by Congress by a large majority in April 2024, forcing the Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok under penalty of ban.
On Saturday, Donald Trump declared that he would study the matter closely once he was inaugurated on Monday, and that a “90 day postponement (would) probably be decreed”. “If I decide, it will probably be Monday”specified, during an interview with the NBC channel, the real estate developer, who had tried during his first mandate to have TikTok banned, in vain.
$5,000 fine per user
The law theoretically required internet providers and application stores to block downloads and updates overnight from Saturday to Sunday from midnight. Contacted by AFP on Saturday, the main ones did not respond.
The text made application stores liable to a fine of up to $5,000 per user, or $850 billion based on the number claimed by the social network, or 170 million. The law provides for the possibility for the president to suspend the entry into force for 90 days.
Karine Jean-Pierre had described TikTok's latest statement as “maneuver”in a press release sent to several American media. “We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to act before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.”
-The tide has turned in favor of TikTok
Seized by TikTok as a last resort, the American Supreme Court unanimously refused on Friday to suspend the law. The nine senior magistrates considered that even if “TikTok (offered) an important mode of expression, interaction and belonging to a community”the concerns of Congress “in matters of national security” are “well-founded”.
American elected officials had justified the passing of the law by the need to prevent the Chinese authorities from accessing the data of American users or from manipulating opinion in the United States. But if the platform was the subject of frank hostility from many American elected officials a year ago, the tide has since turned and a political consensus has emerged in recent days, favorable to the preservation of TikTok.
Amazement and sadness
Postponing the entry into force of the law is only theoretically possible if tangible elements make a sale credible. However, until now, ByteDance has always officially refused to sell its jewel, even if several investors have come forward. Businessman Frank McCourt is ready to put $20 billion on the table with other partners, for the application's American activities, without his powerful algorithm. On Saturday, the artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Perplexity AI submitted a merger proposal to ByteDance with the American subsidiary of TikTok, a source close to the matter told AFP, which would enhance the social network at least 50 billion dollars.
Donald Trump brought up TikTok during a phone conversation Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And the boss of the social network, Shou Chew, is one of the guests of honor for his inauguration ceremony on Monday. In addition to TikTok, all ByteDance applications in the United States were taken offline, including another social network, Lemon8, to which struggling TikTokers had migrated.
Just minutes after the suspension of the famous platform, several content creators uploaded videos to YouTube to welcome “refugees” de TikTok. “Thank you for following me on YouTube,” launched the sensational press star Perez Hilton, who has nearly 470,000 subscribers on the Google subsidiary video site. Others expressed their shock and sadness at seeing their favorite application disappear from the internet, perhaps temporarily.
Update : January 19, with the announcement of the suspension of the social network in the United States.
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