President-elect Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest, on December 22, 2024, in Phoenix.
| Photo Credit: AP

President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Sunday (December 22, 2024) that he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the United States for at least a little while, saying he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.

Trump’s comments before a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, were one of the strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the U.S. market.

Also read |What happens next for TikTok after Supreme Court agrees to review potential US ban?

The U.S. Senate passed a law in April requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app, citing national security concerns.

TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. But if the court does not rule in ByteDance’s favor and no divestment occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the United States on Jan. 19, one day before Trump takes office.

It is unclear how Trump would go about undoing the TikTok divestiture order, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.

“I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” Trump told the crowd at AmericaFest, an annual gathering organized by conservative group Turning Point.

“They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while’,” he said.

Trump met with TikTok’s CEO on Monday. Trump said at a news conference the same day that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok thanks to his campaign’s success on the app.

The Justice Department has argued that Chinese control of TikTok poses a continuing threat to national security, a position supported by most U.S. lawmakers.

TikTok says the Justice Department has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle Corp, while content moderation decisions that affect U.S. users are made in the United States.

The bill was signed after the U.S. Senate voted largely in favour of it, along with foreign aid to strategic American allies [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a bill forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to divest ownership of the app or see it banned in the next nine months, extendable by another three months if needed.

The bill was signed after the U.S. Senate voted largely in favour of it, along with foreign aid to strategic American allies.

Both Democratic and Republican politicians have shared fears of China’s Communist Party using TikTok through ByteDance in order to manipulate Americans, push propaganda, and carry out espionage.

Last year, several U.S. states began banning TikTok in government employees’ work devices, though sweeping bans on private usage were not successful in court.

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However, TikTok may not necessarily disappear from the U.S. next year as a company spokesperson confirmed that the company will be taking its fight to the court in order to stop the ban from taking place, reported The Verge.

Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video on the platform where he criticised the motion in strong terms and said that the new bill was a ban on American people and their voices.

TikTok reported 150 million users in the U.S. last year.

The company claimed that TikTok contributed $24 billion to the U.S. economy in a year, reported CBS on Wednesday.

TikTok has been criticised for its addictive algorithmic feed and for including adult or graphic content on children’s feeds. A few parents of children who died in a “blackout” choking challenge have alleged the app was responsible for causing significant harm.

In France and Spain, the company announced that it was removing a feature from its TikTok Lite app that would reward users for engaging with its videos. However, the EU will continue to investigate this incident.