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 with knowledge of the matter.
The potential executive order, previously reported by The Washington Post, is under discussion as TikTok faces a deadline 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 see the app, which has been downloaded to 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 would ban the app unless ByteDance sells it to a non-Chinese company, the special treatment from Mr. Trump could be the only way for TikTok to continue operating in the United States in the near future. short. 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 can try to direct the government not to enforce the law or delay enforcement to complete a deal, a move past presidents have used to challenge the laws. It’s unclear whether an executive order would survive legal challenges or persuade app stores and cloud computing companies to take steps that could expose them to massive penalties.
While there is some speculation that the app will still work if it has already been downloaded, the law also affects web hosting companies like Oracle and other cloud computing providers, and it’s unclear how video load times and functionality might respond. of the application.
A person close to Mr. Trump’s team said some of his allies were in loose discussions about buying TikTok, but did not elaborate. President Biden, whose term ends on Monday, the day after the ban is set to take effect, is also under pressure to find a way to save the app.
The New York Times reported late Wednesday that TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew is expected to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday and has been offered a seat in the hall. TikTok declined to comment.
Mr. Chew is expected to be joined by other tech leaders: Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Meta; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon; Elon Musk, Mr. Trump’s megadonor; and Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, who personally donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.
Mr Trump had previously supported a ban on TikTok, but publicly reversed his stance last year shortly after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who owns a large chunk of ByteDance.
Mr. Trump has said that they did not discuss the company. But Mr. Yass helped found the trading firm Susquehanna International Group and is one of the biggest backers of the conservative lobby group Club for Growth. The group has hired people with ties to Mr. Trump, such as Kellyanne Conway, his former top adviser, and Republican adviser David Urban, to lobby for TikTok in Washington.
TikTok has also worked its way into Trump’s team through Tony Sayegh, who was a Treasury official during Mr. Trump’s first administration and now heads 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 granddaughter, have also joined the app.
Mr Trump’s interest in TikTok is not entirely due to his advisers. He came to see how well videos about him performed on the platform, and his advisers credited it with helping him expand his reach to a new type of voter during the campaign.
Any action Mr. Trump might be able to take on TikTok is complicated. The law gives the president the ability to extend the sale deadline 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 be terminated within 90 days of an extension. It’s unclear exactly how an extension would work if Mr. Trump tries to put it in place after the ban takes effect.
TikTok has maintained throughout its court challenge to the law that such a sale is unenforceable in part because of the time frame involved. A group led by billionaire Frank McCourt has made a bid to buy the app — albeit without its powerful algorithm — in recent months.
Mr. Trump could also try to work around the law by instructing the government not to enforce it.
But app store operators and cloud computing providers may want more than a soft assurance from Mr. Trump that he won’t punish them if they fail to enforce the ban, said Ryan Calo, a professor at the U.S. School of Law. University of Washington. The potential legal liability for companies that break the law is significant: Fines are up to $5,000 per person who is able to use TikTok after the ban takes effect.
“You can have a policy of not enforcing this ban,” said Mr. Calo, who was part of a group of professors who asked the Supreme Court to strike down the TikTok law. “But I think maybe conservative companies would be like, ‘OK, you’re not going to implement it. But it’s on the books and you can implement it anytime.’
Mr. Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, has declined to say whether she would enforce the law.
“I cannot discuss a pending court case,” she said at the Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “But I will talk to all the career prosecutors who are dealing with the case.”
Mr Trump has a third option: call on Congress to reverse a policy he overwhelmingly approved with broad bipartisan support last year.
“Congress can undo this at any time,” Mr. Calo said.
