MW Trump's shifting stance on TikTok ban signals a regulatory roller coaster in second term
By Lukas I. Alpert
Trump has changed his tune on banning TikTok, but how much he can or will do to stop a legally-mandated sale of the social-media platform remains in question
When it comes to TikTok, Donald Trump voted against it before he voted for it.
Now, the president-elect's shifting positions and mixed signals on whether to ban the social-media platform may become a test case in what many experts expect could be a regulatory roller coaster to come in the new administration.
At the moment, the future of TikTok in the U.S. remains unclear. Congress, with overwhelming bipartisan support, passed a law earlier this year ordering the platform's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operation by Jan. 19 - the day before Trump's inauguration - or be shut down.
Trump's fluctuating stance on the platform - he most recently said he opposes the ban - provides little clarity to the matter. His approach to the issue suggests that in terms of policy and regulations, his second term in office will be anything but certain. That could have major implications for companies who rely on some regulatory scrutiny to operate their businesses, and for the investors and consumers who are impacted by those companies' decisions.
"We're in for some very unpredictable times."Matt Wood, general counsel of watchdog group Free Press
"Welcome to Trump 2.0," said Matt Wood, the vice president of policy and general counsel for Free Press, a nonpartisan media and technology watchdog that opposes banning TikTok. "We saw in the first term that Trump will sometimes oppose his own viewpoint even within days. I think we're in for some very unpredictable times."
During his first administration, Trump loudly advocated for a TikTok ban, even signing an executive order calling for the platform to be sold or shut down, but which was eventually blocked in court. Trump has since changed his tune, saying while on the campaign trail that he wants to "save" the company.
What saving TikTok means and how Trump could achieve it is not clear. Trump's spokeswoman said in response to questions about what he plans to do about TikTok that the president-elect will stick to the promises he made during the campaign.
"The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail," Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "He will deliver."
But at the same time, many of Trump's nominees for significant posts in his administration have been loud critics of TikTok.
Trump appointed Brendan Carr, a staunch advocate of a TikTok ban, to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
"TikTok poses a serious and unacceptable risk to America's national security," Carr wrote about what the objectives of the FCC should be in the Project 2025 white paper, which has been viewed by some as a policy template for the incoming Trump administration. "A new administration should ban the application on national security grounds."
Leavitt said that Trump "had nothing to do with Project 2025."
Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, was also a vocal proponent of a TikTok ban as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Trump's change of heart
The president-elect's about-face on TikTok has never been fully explained.
During his first term, Trump demanded that TikTok be sold by its Chinese owners or be banned in the United States, citing national security concerns.
Trump even went so far as to sign an executive order in August 2020 ordering ByteDance to divest of its ownership of TikTok or face a ban. TikTok filed suit arguing that the order was simply part of Trump's efforts to boost his re-election efforts through more protectionist trade politics with China.
They also argued that the move appeared motivated by Trump's anger at a prank staged by TikTok users to acquire tickets to his campaign rallies and then not go, to make it appear like he was speaking to an empty room.
ByteDance, however, did engage in sales talks with Microsoft Corp. $(MSFT)$ and Oracle Corp. $(ORCL)$, although they never reached a deal.
The matter became moot after Trump was defeated at the polls that November and President Joe Biden revoked Trump's earlier order requiring the ban.
But in March of this year, Trump publicly changed his position, speaking out against a ban just as Congress began debating the bill to force TikTok's sale that would eventually pass by a wide margin.
Trump's shift came shortly after he met with Jeff Yass, a multibillionaire Republican megadonor whose Susquehanna International Group owns a sizable stake in ByteDance. Trump has said he and Yass didn't discuss TikTok. A person close to Yass said the two only spoke at the meeting about school choice, an issue with which Yass is deeply involved. The person noted that Yass is a staunch libertarian so is opposed to censoring or banning any type of communications platform.
Around the time of the meeting, Trump said on social media that he opposed a ban of TikTok because he felt it would help Facebook $(META)$.
"I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!" Trump wrote on Truth Social $(DJT)$.
Over the summer, Trump joined TikTok and quickly amassed over 14 million followers.
While the law passed in Congress by a wide margin, the prospect of a ban has never been particularly popular publicly. TikTok users bombarded congressional offices with complaints around the time the bill was passed, and the move has been broadly opposed by free-speech and other interest groups.
What's next for TikTok
The truth is, Trump's position on a forced sale of TikTok, or even its ban, may not be the final word on the matter, but rather an issue for the courts, experts say.
The U.S. government's argument was that TikTok is a national security threat, because it potentially could allow the Chinese government to spread propaganda or give them access to sensitive data about American citizens.
After Biden signed the law passed by Congress in April, ByteDance immediately challenged it in court. In a hearing before the court of appeals in Washington, D.C. in September, TikTok argued that the law would violate the First Amendment rights of the platform's 170 million American users.
Judges on the panel appeared skeptical of the argument that the free expression surpassed national security concerns, but have yet to issue a ruling ahead of the mandated date of Jan. 19, by which TikTok would need to sell its U.S. platform to an acceptable buyer.
"The court's decision may provide some of the best guidance as to how this might go more than anything said on the campaign trail," said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, which opposes the ban. "The expectation is that whoever loses this round will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court."
That will likely push back the Jan. 19 sale deadline until the matter can be fully resolved in court, Huddleston said.
That might provide Trump with time to figure out an alternative way forward. Short of convincing Congress to repeal its own law which passed with overwhelming support, Trump could instruct the Justice Department to not enforce a ban, legal experts have said.
Or he could reject any potential buyer as the law requires approval by the government of any sale.
But both approaches are problematic, as the law also penalizes any other platform, like Alphabet's $(GOOGL)$( GOOG) Google or Apple $(AAPL)$, from distributing the TikTok app on their platforms.
-Lukas I. Alpert
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 22, 2024 08:58 ET (13:58 GMT)
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