The TikTok case was the technological soap opera of the summer of 2020 and led to a US Senate Act that forced its Chinese parent company to sell the application. The case is still pending a court decision, but could take a complete turnaround with Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
And the president-elect of the United States has shown himself in favor of allowing TikTok to continue operating in the country “at least for a while”claiming that he received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign. Trump’s comments to a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix have been one of the strongest signs yet that opposes a possible exit of TikTok from the US market.
TikTok, a phenomenon in the pillory
A relatively recent mobile application (late 2016) that in a very short time became the new social media phenomenon. It allows users to create short music videos and share them to the world. Its success was as resounding as it was rapid; In a short time, it pulverized the number of users of other services as popular as Instagram and its use increased exponentially in times of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The service is property of the Chinese company ByteDance and that’s where the problems come from. The US government and a good part of the legislature accused them of having “links with the Chinese Communist Party” and the possibility that “Beijing is using the social network as a means to monitor and distribute propaganda”.
As a solution, before a potential expulsion from the American market, ByteDance proposed reducing its participation in TikTok, opening the door for some other company, technological and preferably American, to enter the shareholding. Everything pointed to it being Microsoftbut not acquiring the entire company but rather its services for some countries such as the United States.
The US Senate passed a law in April forcing ByteDance to divest from the app for privacy reasons. “national security”. The Chinese company requested the annulment of this law before the Supreme Court in a case that is still pending, but whose deadline is January 19, one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Change of course
“I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we went to TikTok, and we had a huge response with billions of views, billions and billions of views.”Trump told the crowd at AmericaFest, an annual gathering hosted by the conservative group Turning Point. “They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to look at, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we have to keep this sucker around for a while.'”Trump added in statements like many of his: curious.
It is not known How can Trump stop the divestment order? approved by a large majority in the Senate. In addition, the Department of Justice and other agencies continue to argue that Chinese control of TikTok represents “a threat to national security”. ByteDance also has problems in Europe, although these are of a different type and also affect other social networks.
