TikTok will not suffer from Huawei, Trump seeks executive order to save the app

On August 7, 2020, then-US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok and WeChat in the country, citing national security concerns. The move sought to block transactions with ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, and Tencent, owner of WeChat, starting September 20, 2020.

The Trump administration argued that these applications collected data from American users, which could allow the Chinese Communist Party to access personal and private information, posing a threat to national security. The executive order set a 45-day deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to an American company, with Microsoft emerging as a potential buyer.

However, the implementation of this ban faced legal and political challenges. During the administration of President Joe Biden, significant measures were taken, such as the ban of the app on government devices, which became effective in December 2022.

Subsequently, in April 2024, Biden returned to the law that required ByteDance to sell TikTok’s operations in the United States within a period of 270 days, that is, before January 19, 2025. If this condition is not met, the platform would face a total ban in the country.

This legislation generated debates and legal challenges. The platform and its users argued that the ban violated free speech rights protected by the First Amendment. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where arguments were made both for and against the ban.

As the January 19, 2025 deadline approaches, TikTok has announced plans to completely shut down its US operations if a favorable resolution is not reached. The situation continues to evolve, and final decisions are expected to be made in the coming days, which will determine the future of TikTok in the United States.

Although the case has been equated to what Huawei experienced at the time with Trump, the facts have shown the opposite. Noel Francisco, who was also the attorney general of the United States during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, is now TikTok’s legal representative and hinted in the company’s latest communication that Trump could stop Biden’s resolution .