The countdown to the TikTok blackout in the United States is underway. At midnight from Saturday to Sunday, the application will stop working in the United States, except for a last-minute surprise, by virtue of and TikTok has confirmed it through a statement on another social network, X, the former Twitter, owned by Elon Musk, an ally of Donald Trump on whom the short video application has its hopes pinned.
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have not provided the necessary clarity and assurance to service providers who are essential to keeping TikTok available to more than 170 million Americans,” “ Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers by ensuring non-enforcement of the law, TikTok will unfortunately be forced to shut down on January 19,” he added.
The White House indicated that Joe Biden, who steps down as president at noon Monday, was not going to be active in law enforcement. However, the law is in force and cloud service providers and app stores would violate it if they continue to provide services to ByteDance, the Chinese firm that owns the social network.
The application does not specify how it will turn off this Saturday, whether it will disconnect voluntarily or simply stop working because it does not receive the essential services for it.
“The Administration, like the rest of the country, has waited for the decision that the United States Supreme Court has just made on the TikTok matter,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre this Friday. “President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, even since Congress overwhelmingly and bipartisanly sent a bill to the president’s desk: TikTok must continue to be available to Americans, but under U.S. or other ownership.” property that addresses national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law. Given the time factor, this Administration recognizes that actions to apply the law must simply fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday,” he added in the statement referenced by TikTok.
The Justice Department went even further and welcomed the ruling. “The Court’s decision allows the Department of Justice to prevent the Chinese government from using TikTok as a weapon to undermine the national security of the United States”, “Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to the sensitive data of millions of Americans. “The Court’s decision affirms that this Act protects the national security of the United States in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution,” he added. However, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco clarified that “implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 will be a process that will unfold over time.”
It is one thing that the Biden Government, on its way out, is not going to take immediate action against the social network or against firms such as Apple, Google and Oracle, which provide services to it, and leaves the hot potato to the Trump Administration and another that consider offering specific guarantees to TikTok and its suppliers. Assuring those firms that a law that is in force will not be applied to them would go beyond their powers.
Nor has Trump, who asked the Supreme Court to suspend the application of the rule, for now given guarantees that it will not be applied. “The Supreme Court’s decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision about TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. “Stay tuned,”
The law conditions the continuity of TikTok on it ceasing to be under Chinese ownership and only provided for the possibility of a 90-day extension for its ban in the event that its sale was on track. It is not clear that this extension can be approved once the ban has come into force.
The Supreme Court concluded that the rule did not represent an attack on freedom of expression that violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, but rather focused on protecting Americans by breaking the ties that unite TikTok with the Beijing Government. The same content, with another owner, would be perfectly admissible.
During the process in the Supreme Court, that TikTok’s collection of a large amount of confidential data on 170 million Americans and their contacts makes it a powerful espionage tool. “He assured that TikTok’s role as a key communication channel makes it a powerful weapon for covert influence operations.” He argued that as long as TikTok remains under China’s control, its government could use those weapons against the United States, for example, at a crucial moment during a crisis.
