Here’s a lede that should surprise no one: Donald Trump wants to overturn a law signed by Joe Biden.
As the president-elect prepares to take office for his second term, his subordinates are indicating that he will keep promises made on the campaign trail. One of those promises concerns TikTok and its operating status in the United States: Once he’s sworn in, Trump is expected to press the undo button on the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversaries Act (PAFFAA), which President Biden signed into law this past April.
Though PAFFAA’s scope is wide enough to regulate any number of apps with ties to foreign powers like China or Russia, it has been commonly referred to as a “TikTok ban.” The law aims to force a divestiture of TikTok by its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance; if ByteDance does not comply, TikTok could be banned in the U.S. as a result.
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With the reelection of President Trump, that is turning into a mighty big “if.” During his first term, Trump attempted to take out TikTok by stripping away its Section 230 protections. Four years later, he’s done a complete about-face. Motivated by his animosity toward Mark Zuckerberg — and the power Meta would gain in the event of a TikTok ban — Trump has become an unexpected TikTok ally. In one of the first TikToks he posted after joining the app in June, he promised to “save” the beleaguered app.
@realdonaldtrumpNo Tax on Tips!
According to The Washington Post, Trump allies expect the president-elect to make good on his promise to save TikTok. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team, put it even simpler: “He will deliver.”
Trump’s intentions seem clear, but his planned course of action is not. PAFFAA has been signed into law, so the president cannot simply use his veto power to block it. Passing a PAFFAA repeal in Congress could be tricky, since many members of Trump’s Congressional majority have worked hard to limit TikTok’s power.
Whatever solution Trump lands on will probably involve input from TikTok itself. Ahead of his electoral win, the 45th and 47th president forged connections with TikTok brass, including CEO Shou Zi Chew. Trump ally Tony Sayegh has served as the conduit for many of those conversations.
One potential way to tear down PAFFAA would involve TikTok’s lawsuit against the United States. Once Trump regains power, he could order his attorney general to forgo the case or otherwise tip the scales to ensure a legal victory for TikTok.
Then there is the Gen Z of it all. The current cohort of twentysomethings still ranks TikTok among its favorite apps, and that generation also played an instrumental role in Trump’s reelection. By leveraging PAFFAA’s declining public support, Trump could undermine the law while simultaneously rewarding his bloc of young male voters.
That would be an interesting way to kill two birds with one stone. Of course, this is Donald Trump we’re talking about. There’s a good chance his actual plan for putting PAFFAA to bed will be much more complicated than anything speculated here. We’ll see which path he takes once his January inauguration rolls around.
