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  • Trump issues an executive order to suspend the US TikTok ban. But can it stick?

    Trump issues an executive order to suspend the US TikTok ban. But can it stick?

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to keep TikTok operating for 75 days, a relief to the social media platform’s users even as national security questions persist.

    TikTok’s China-based parent ByteDance was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned on Jan. 19. Trump’s order could give ByteDance more time to find a buyer.

    “I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,” Trump said.

    Trump has amassed nearly 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. Yet its 170 million U.S. users could not access TikTok for more than 12 hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

    The platform went offline before the ban approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court took effect on Sunday. After Trump promised to pause the ban on Monday, TikTok restored access for existing users. Google and Apple, however, still have not reinstated TikTok to their app stores.

    Business leaders, lawmakers, legal scholars, and influencers who make money on TikTok are watching to see how Trump tries to resolve a thicket of regulatory, legal, financial and geopolitical issues with his signature.

    TikTok’s app allows users to create and watch short-form videos, and broke new ground by operating with an algorithm that fed viewers recommendations based on their viewing habits. But concerns about its potential to serve as a tool for Beijing to manipulate and spy on Americans pre-date Trump’s first presidency.

    In 2020, Trump issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance and the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat. Courts ended up blocking the orders, but less than a year ago Congress overwhelmingly passed a law citing national security concerns to ban TikTok unless ByteDance sold it to an approved buyer.

    The law, which went into force Sunday, allows for fines of up to $5,000 per U.S. TikTok user against major mobile app stores — like the ones operated by Apple and Google — and internet hosting services like Oracle if they continued to distribute TikTok to U.S. users beyond the deadline for ByteDance’s divestment.

    Trump on Sunday said he had asked TikTok’s U.S. service providers to continue supporting the platform and app while he prepared to sign an executive order to stop the ban for now.

    “The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social networking site.

    The law that Congress passed and now-former President Joe Biden signed in April allowed for a 90-day extension if there had been progress toward a sale before the statute’s effective date. Less certain is whether that provision can be applied retroactively, according to Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.

    “Executive orders cannot override existing laws,” Kreps said. “It’s not clear that the new president has that authority to issue the 90-day extension of a law that’s already gone into effect.”

    Kreps also doubts the conditions for a delay exist at this point without so much as even a potential buyer being named to prove that a sale was moving along.

    But Alan Rozenshtein, a University of Minnesota law professor, has written that the law also empowers the president to decide what constitutes a “qualified divestiture” — suggesting Trump could have discretion to say whether or when ByteDance meets the terms of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

    Although ByteDance spent months repeating it wasn’t interested in selling, Beijing on Monday also signaled a possible easing on China’s stance on TikTok to allow it to be divested from its Chinese parent company. China’s vice president held meetings with Vice President JD Vance and Tesla tech titan Elon Musk on Sunday.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, said Monday that business operations and acquisitions “should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles.”

    “If it involves Chinese companies, China’s laws and regulations should be observed,” Mao said.

    Until now, it was widely believed that Beijing would not allow the sale of TikTok, which had come to embody China’s defiance in the face of “U.S. robbery.” However, TikTok was among several issues brought up in a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump on Friday, though details were not available.

    Trump later announced plans to delay the TikTok ban and suggested a joint venture in which the U.S. would get a 50% ownership of the app. Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, attended Trump’s inauguration, seated with American tech heavyweights.

    The Justice Department is generally tasked with enforcing the laws of the federal government, so it’s possible that Trump will direct the DOJ to ignore the law. Such a move might itself be subject to legal scrutiny but would buy time for TikTok.

    Trump’s efforts to save TikTok may put him at odds with some of the House members and senators who voted for the law, which received broad bipartisan support. House Speaker Mike Johnson called ByteDance’s ownership “a very dangerous thing,” and said he expected a full sale to happen.

    “I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

    Legislators now stand to “look a little bit silly” if the ban doesn’t last, Kreps said.

    “(The case) becomes about the separations of powers, and checks and balances, that we don’t have a king who decides what happens with the law,” Kreps said. “Enforcement isn’t only up to the executive branch.”

    Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, in a message posted on X, listed a number of state and federal agencies, and private entities, that might be willing to go to court to get the ban enforced.

    “Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,” Cotton noted.

    Despite the intense scrutiny and potential costs involved, the machinations over TikTok are in some ways just business as usual for the tech companies involved, according to Gus Hurwitz, a legal scholar with the International Center for Law and Economics.

    “The fines that we’re talking about are civil penalties and companies risk civil penalties all the time,” Hurwitz said.

    Still, the hard business calculus of complying with a law in limbo or risk defying a president who holds lucrative federal contracts over those companies could come into focus if shareholders sue.

    Oracle, for example, has a part of the Pentagon’s $9 billion contract to build its cloud computing network.

    “This actually could be the right business decision to make,” Hurwitz said. “That’s not necessarily a breach of duty to shareholders.”

    There’s been lots of questions about how companies such as Oracle and Akamai Technologies are powering TikTok’s servers to stay online, while others such as Apple and Google have made the app unavailable for new users to download.

    None of the companies have responded to requests for comment.

    Oracle in 2020 announced it had a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global after securing its business as the app’s cloud technology provider.

    Meanwhile, as of Monday night, a search for TikTok on Apple’s app store directs to an online statement that reads in part: “Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” while Google’s app store notes downloads for TikTok “are paused due to current US legal requirements.”

    ___

    Ho reported from Seattle. Maya Sweedler and Didi Tang in Washington contributed reporting.

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  • From backing a ban to being hailed as a savior: Inside Trump’s TikTok shift

    From backing a ban to being hailed as a savior: Inside Trump’s TikTok shift

    NEW YORK — During his first term as president, Donald Trump led the effort to ban TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing site he said posed a threat to U.S. national security. But on the eve of his return to the White House, the president-elect is being hailed as the app’s savior.

    After going dark for users this weekend, Trump said on his social media site that he would issue an executive order after he’s sworn in for a second term on Monday delaying a TikTok ban “so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.” He said the order would make clear that companies will not be held liable for violating a law that aimed to force TikTok’s sale by its China-based parent company. Hours later, the app returned, to the relief of its legions of dedicated users.

    “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” read the announcement.

    Trump’s legal authority to unilaterally decide not to enforce the law, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in April and was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, is unclear. But the rapid developments over the weekend served as a reminder of how dramatically debates over technology, social media and national security have changed since Trump was last in the White House. It also signaled how closely Trump is following those shifts after waging a successful campaign in which he made inroads with voters in part by harnessing the appeal of some social media platforms.

    Trump can now take credit for reviving an app with 170 million users that is especially popular with younger Americans, many of whom spend hours a day on the platform to get news, make money and find entertainment.

    “This is one of those things where the domestic politics has become so upside down and crazy that it turns out there’s only upside for Trump now,” said Bill Bishop, a China expert who has been closely following the back-and-forth. If the bans ends up being enforced, he said, Trump will say it was on outgoing President Joe Biden’s watch. “And if it does come back then Trump is a savior. And he will be rewarded both by users” as well as the company, which he said is now “beholden to Trump” and will have an incentive to make sure content on the platform is favorable to him.

    TikTok’s move comes as tech companies and CEOs have been been working furiously to improve their standing with Trump. X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has enjoyed unprecedented access to the president-elect after spending more than $200 million and personally campaigning to help him get elected.

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and reshaped his social media platforms’ policies to align more closely with Trump’s worldview earlier this month, ending third-party fact-checking, loosening rules against hate speech, ending his company’s diversity and equity policies and naming Dana White, the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a familiar figure in Trump’s orbit, to its board.

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon, Meta and Google have all pledged to donate $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund.

    The companies have a lot on the line, including regulatory challenges. Although federal regulators began cracking down on Google and Facebook during Trump’s first term as president — and flourished under Biden — most experts expect his second administration to ease up on antitrust enforcement and be more receptive to business mergers.

    TikTok also worked to curry Trump’s favor, with CEO Shou Chew meeting with him at Mar-a-Lago in December. In a video responding to the Supreme Court decision, Chew was careful to praise Trump and cast the app’s fate as dependent on him.

    “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” he said. “We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform.”

    When the app went dark, it had initially posted a simple message informing users of the change, but later updated the language to include Trump.

    “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” it read. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

    The federal law had required TikTok parent company ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations by Sunday. The Biden administration had stressed in recent days that it did not intend to enforce the ban before Trump took office. But TikTok said it would nonetheless “go dark” because the Biden administration had not provided “necessary clarity and assurance” to service providers — a stance outgoing Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer cast as disingenuous.

    “Frankly, it doesn’t feel completely on the level,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think we were extremely clear that there was no need to take this action,” he said.

    Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Saturday that he was considering granting ByteDance a 90-day extension to sell. ByteDance has repeatedly refused to sell, but the company is being eyed by investors including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire businessman Frank McCourt.

    Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, said there was no evidence ByteDance had made any meaningful progress toward divestiture, “so I don’t see how, by any measure, it would legally meet those conditions.”

    “Further, an Executive Order cannot legally override or cancel a law that Congress passed,” she said. “Laws enacted through the legislative process have a higher legal standing and an EO that conflicts with the existing law, the law takes precedence and the EO would likely be struck down by the courts.”

    Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, warned Sunday that there is no legal basis for the kind of extension Trump is pursuing.

    “Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,” he wrote on X. “Think about it.”

    Trump, in his Sunday post, proposed new terms of a deal in which he said the United States would have “a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” that would be “set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.” But the details remained murky and it was unclear whether Trump was proposing control by the U.S. government or another company. Trump did not elaborate during a rally Sunday night, where he hailed the move.

    “As of today, TikTok is back,” he said. “We have no choice. We have to save it.”

    Though Trump sought to ban TikTok during his first term, he reversed that stance during his 2024 campaign, when he came to believe a ban would help the app’s rival, Facebook, which he held responsible, in part, to his 2020 election loss to Biden.

    Trump ended up joining the app last year and has grown his following to nearly 15 million users. He has since credited the app for helping him win over young voters.

    “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he said during a December news conference. “TikTok had an impact.”

    ___

    Ortutay reported from Oakland, California. Associated Press writers Charlotte Kramon and Nadia Lathan contributed to this report.

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  • For TikTok users, mourning, frustration and clinging to hope as TikTok ban looms

    For TikTok users, mourning, frustration and clinging to hope as TikTok ban looms

    NEW YORK — The U.S. is inching closer and closer to a potential TikTok ban — with the nation’s highest court upholding a law that’s set to halt new downloads of the app starting Sunday. But many questions around what exactly this ban will look like, and whether it will actually be enforced, remain.

    That puts millions of users and content creators in limbo — particularly influencers and small business owners who have come to rely on the mega-popular social media platform as a source of income.

    Among those individuals is Terrell Wade, a comedian, actor and content creator with 1.5 million followers on TikTok under the handle @TheWadeEmpire. Wade, who has turned his TikTok presence into a full-time job, said he expects “two days of chaos” as the Sunday deadline nears.

    “At this point, I really don’t know what to believe,” Wade told The Associated Press.

    In a unanimous decision on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that will ban TikTok unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company before Jan. 19 — ruling that a risk to national security posed by the platform’s ties to China overcomes First Amendment concerns about limiting free speech on and by the app.

    A sale does not appear imminent, meaning the ban should go into effect Sunday. But the ruling also arrives just days before the inauguration of a new president.

    President Joe Biden’s administration has maintained that TikTok must change its ownership to address national security concerns, but signaled that it won’t enforce the law on Sunday, the Democrat’s final full day in office. On Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that actions to enforce the law will fall to the new administration due to “the sheer fact of timing.” Meanwhile, Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who once also tried to ban TikTok, has now vowed to preserve access to the platform. But what his options will be following Monday’s inauguration remains unclear.

    Among other points of confusion is what a ban on TikTok will look like. Experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users’ devices once the law takes effect. But new users won’t be able to download it and updates will not be available. That will eventually render the app unworkable, the Justice Department said in court filings.

    All of this is “a reminder to the creator community that social media platforms can come and go,” notes Kelsey Chickering, a principal analyst at Forrester, stressing the disruptions TikTok creators and influencers will feel if the ban takes effect. If access is lost, she adds, many will have to pivot and re-build their presence on other platforms.

    While bracing for a potential Sunday ban, Wade is among creators who hope that something happens to avert the shutdown, although he thinks he has enough followers on other platforms to stay afloat.

    “I’m still remaining optimistic,” he said.

    Still, many continue to express fears over the potential of losing TikTok.

    Janette Ok, a full-time content creator based in Los Angeles, says TikTok is the primary platform she uses today. As an influencer and also an artist, she says the platform has helped her make brand deals and promote her music — bringing “opportunities that I never believed I could experience in my lifetime.”

    Ok was also among influencers who TikTok brought to Washington in 2023 to lobby for the preservation of the app, and remembers a ban being discussed as far back as 2020. And as someone who is Asian, the efforts to ban TikTok over the years have also felt “a little xenophobic,” she added.

    “I hear all these different things, and I don’t know what to believe — so that’s where I’m very frustrated. I’m confused. I’m disappointed,” Ok said. “It’s a beautiful app, it’s brought so many people together, it’s changed a lot of people’s lives, and for it to just be taken away like that feels … so not American.”

    Jordan Smith, a former WNBA player who operates The Elevated Closet in Austin, Texas — a clothing brand for tall women — depends on TikTok and TikTok Shop to find customers that fit her niche demographic that’s difficult to specifically market to otherwise.

    “On TikTok I’ve just been able to find that audience so much easier,” she said.

    She fears losing TikTok will hurt her business, and she’ll miss it personally, too. So she’s following what people are saying will happen on Sunday and hopes a ban might be diverted.

    “It kind of seems like Biden’s kind of pushing it off to Trump,” she said. “So people have hopes that maybe we have a few more days and it won’t go dark on Sunday, but I don’t really know.”

    Alejandro Flores-Munoz owns a catering business in the Denver area called Combi Taco, or @combicafe on TikTok. TikTok helped him reach customers without spending money on marketing, he said. He was optimistic that TikTok would stick around until he heard Friday’s Supreme Court decision.

    “Up until today, I was extremely optimistic. And after today’s Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban or the sale of TikTok, I weigh my options,” he said. “But honestly, it’s very disheartening, specifically because I truly did rely on the app for my business and my growth of my business.”

    Going viral on TikTok helped Ruben Trujillo market his Cafe Emporos Coffeegrams, a card that includes coffee, tea or hot chocolate. He said he’s growing frustrated with the ever-evolving politics surrounding the ban.

    “It’s kind of like they keep putting the ball in each other’s court, but who’s going to make the decision?” he said. He said small business owners are told to “be creative, pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” he said. “And a lot of people did that, and it’s like those bootstraps are being cut now.”

    _____

    Associated Press reporters Haleluya Hadero in South Bend, Indiana, and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • A possible TikTok ban is just days away. A list of other apps available

    A possible TikTok ban is just days away. A list of other apps available

    With a possible TikTok ban just days away, many U.S. users are looking for alternative social media platforms to help them keep up with pop culture or provide the type of entertaining videos that popularized the short-form video app.

    TikTok, which has been a cultural phenomenon, could be banned on Jan. 19 under a law that forces the platform to cut ties with its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or shut down its U.S. operation.

    The fate of social media platform will be decided by the Supreme Court, which last week heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute and seemed likely to uphold the law. The court could rule on the case as soon as this week. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has asked the justices to put the law on hold so he can negotiate a “political resolution” to the issue after he takes office.

    TikTok has more than 170 million users in the U.S., and if it does get banned, it’s not clear which competitors will benefit the most. Some experts think established social media platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, could see the biggest influx of users. But some users are looking for something different and could turn to other apps.

    Here are the different alternatives and what to know about them:

    Recently, some U.S. TikTok users have flocked to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu in protest of the looming ban. Like TikTok, Xiaohongshu, which in English means “Little Red Book,” combines e-commerce and short-form videos.

    The app has gained traction in China and other regions with a Chinese diaspora — such as Malaysia and Taiwan — racking up 300 million monthly active users, a majority of whom are young women who use it as a de-facto search engine for product, travel and restaurant recommendations, as well as makeup and skincare tutorials.

    On Tuesday, the Xiaohongshu, called “RedNote” by American users and on some app stores, was the top downloaded free app in Apple’s U.S. app store.

    Lemon8, also owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, is a lesser-known lifestyle app that allows users to post pictures and short-form videos. Though the platform lets users post TikTok-like videos, it leans more into pictures and has been described as a mixture of Instagram and Pinterest.

    In the past few weeks, many creators have hailed Lemon8 as the place to go if TikTok is banned under federal law. Some have also recommended it through paid sponsored posts tagged #lemon8partner, indicating a recent corporate push to generate more users.

    But the law that targets TikTok also states the divest-or-ban requirement for ByteDance applies generally to apps that are owned or operated by the two companies or any of their subsidiaries. That means even though Lemon8 is not explicitly named in the statute, its future in the U.S. is also in jeopardy.

    Instagram launched Reels in 2020, a TikTok-like feed of short videos users can create or scroll through. The feature has proven to be massively popular and some experts say creators are likely to set up shop there if a TikTok ban does happen. As of 2022, Instagram had 2 billion active monthly users. Meta no longer discloses user numbers for its individual platforms.

    But could it replace TikTok? That depends. While many creators currently post on both platforms, some experts say the youngest users are unlikely to migrate to a service made popular by their millennial parents. And while Meta’s algorithm is addictive, it’s still not TikTok.

    In the past, some TikTok users have also blamed the surge of scrutiny on the platform on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pointing to a Washington Post report from 2022 that said the tech behemoth paid a Republican consulting firm to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign.

    Though TikTok dominates headlines as a driver of internet trends, Pew Research Center says YouTube is actually the most widely-used platform among teens and adults.

    YouTube users can scroll through Shorts just as they can on TikTok or Reels on Instagram and Facebook, allowing them to watch hours of bite-sized videos. Many of the videos featured on YouTube are from TikTok or creators who post to several platforms. That said, YouTube is still known for its longer-format videos so it may not have the variety of content that TikTok users are looking for — at least not yet.

    Snapchat, launched in 2011 with its infamous disappearing videos, remains popular among teens and younger adults. The platform gained so much traction that Meta designed a similar feature in Facebook and Instagram called “Stories” that lets users post photos or videos that disappear within 24 hours. In 2020, Snapchat launched another feature that lets users “shine a light on the most entertaining Snaps, no matter who created them.”

    The platform is estimated to have roughly 692 million global monthly active users last year, according to eMarketer.

    For TikTok users who enjoy the “TikTok Live” feed that features livestreamed videos, Twitch could be a good alternative. The Amazon-owned platform is a leader in the streaming industry and allows users on the platform to watch some of the internet’s most popular streamers, such as Kai Cenat. Twitch says it has 105 million monthly visitors.

    Clapper, a TikTok clone, has also been gaining some traction amid the looming ban. The app was launched in 2020 by Dallas-based entrepreneur Edison Chen, and focuses on Gen X and millennial users. In September of that year, the company described itself in a Facebook post as a “free speech” platform that did not “censor posts and comments.” But in blog post on its website from 2021, the company wrote it “stopped being a ‘Free Speech’ platform” in September 2020 and “changed its mission and goals” to focus on “community”.

    For TikTok users who want to get away from the overcrowded spots, there are lesser-known apps like Triller, which is popular for music videos, and Zigazoo, which was designed with kids in mind.

    If none of these apps tickle your fancy, it’s also possible that other platforms could emerge in the next few months as companies attempt to attract users looking for a new place to go.

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  • The Supreme Court is considering a possible TikTok ban. Here’s what to know

    The Supreme Court is considering a possible TikTok ban. Here’s what to know

    WASHINGTON — The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court on Friday, with the justices largely holding the app’s fate in their hands.

    The popular social media platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down.

    TikTok’s parent company is based in China, and the U.S. government says that means it is a potential national security threat. Chinese authorities could force it to hand over sensitive data on the huge number of Americans who use it or could influence the spread of information on the platform, they say.

    An appeals court has upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold.

    The law is set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before a new term begins for President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform. The Republican says he wants to “save TikTok.”

    Here are some key things to know about the case:

    Not now, but the short-form video-sharing app could be shut down in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law.

    Congress passed the measure with bipartisan support, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law in April.

    TikTok’s lawyers challenged the law in court, joined by users and content creators who say a ban would upend their livelihoods. TikTok says the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.

    But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents has upheld the law.

    The justices will issue a decision after arguments Friday, a lightning-fast movement by court standards.

    The conservative-majority court could drop clues about how it’s leaning during oral arguments.

    TikTok lawyers have urged the justices to step in before the law takes effect, saying even a monthlong shutdown would cause the app to lose about one-third of its daily American users and significant advertising revenue.

    The court could quickly block the law from going into effect before issuing a final ruling, if at least five of the nine justices think it is unconstitutional.

    The law is to take effect Jan. 19, the day before Trump takes over as president.

    He took the unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court to put the law on hold so that he could negotiate a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office. His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself into national issues before he takes office. It also was a change from his last presidential term, when he wanted to ban it.

    Parent company ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell. Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last month.

    Free-speech advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have urged the court to block the law, saying the government hasn’t shown credible evidence of harm and a ban would cause “extraordinary disruption” in Americans’ lives.

    On the other side, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican former Senate leader, and a group of 22 states have filed briefs in support, arguing that the law protects free speech by safeguarding Americans’ data and preventing the possible manipulation of information on the platform by Chinese authorities.

    ___

    Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

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  • ByteDance’s Lemon8 gains traction amid TikTok ban threat as creators push the app

    ByteDance’s Lemon8 gains traction amid TikTok ban threat as creators push the app

    Hearing a lot about Lemon8 lately? You’re not the only one.

    Amid a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, content creators have been pushing the platform’s sister app. Lemon8 resembles an amalgamation of the types of short-form videos found on TikTok and the picture-perfect aesthetic of Instagram and Pinterest.

    Like its popular relation, Lemon8 is owned by China-based ByteDance, whose collection of internationally available apps also includes the video editing app CapCut and the photo and art editing app Hypic. In addition, the company operates Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok that follows Beijing’s strict censorship rules.

    Lemon8 launched in the U.S. in 2023, a few years after it first popped up in Asian markets. Though it garnered some media and user interest in its early days, the app hasn’t taken off as much as TikTok, which has more than 170 million U.S. users.

    But more people have downloaded the app in the past month, making it one of the top-ranking free apps on Apple’s app store. Lemon8’s popularity could potentially soar further depending on the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing Friday over a law requiring TikTok to break ties with ByteDance or face a U.S. ban.

    TikTok says it plans to shut down the platform in the U.S. by Jan. 19 if the government prevails, as it did in a lower court.

    Influencers previously partnered with Lemon8 to promote the lesser-known app on TikTok. In recent weeks, many of them have hailed Lemon8 as the place to go if TikTok is banned under federal law. Some have also been recommending it through paid sponsored posts tagged #lemon8partner, showing a recent corporate push to generate more users.

    But there’s a hitch. The law, which would wipe out TikTok’s U.S. operation if it’s not sold to an approved buyer, states the divest-or-ban requirement applies generally to apps that are owned or operated by ByteDance, TikTok or any of their subsidiaries. That means even though Lemon8 and CapCut are not explicitly named in the statute, their futures in the U.S. also are in jeopardy.

    Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at market research company Emarketer, noted that the creators recommending Lemon8 may not be aware of the possible implications for the other ByteDance apps because the law does not identify them.

    The recent Lemon8 ads on TikTok also may be a sign that ByteDance is “hoping or betting” Lemon8 slips through the cracks as lawmakers and regulators focus their attention on TikTok, Enberg said. Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    To boost Lemon8’s user base, TikTok announced in November that creators would be able to access a Lemon8 account with the same account they use on TikTok, a feature the company says will enhance their ability to cross-post content. TikTok said the integration was designed to expand creators “reach and engagement potential.”

    Like TikTok, Lemon8’s main feed features both a “following” section that lets users look at content from the creators they follow and a “For You” section that recommends other posts. The newer platform also sorts posts into different categories, like relationships, wellness and skincare.

    ByteDance has not disclosed the number of global or U.S. users on Lemon8, which is believed to be miniscule compared to its trend-setting sister app. Data from the research firm SimilarWeb indicates Lemon8 has a little over 1 million daily active users.

    Market intelligence company Sensor Tower estimates the app saw a significant jump in global downloads in December — a 150% increase — compared to an average 2% month-over-month decline last year. The U.S. accounted for 70% of the month’s downloads.

    The largest number of U.S. downloads were performed on Dec. 19, according to Sensor Tower. That was the day after the Supreme Court said it would hear this week’s oral arguments over the constitutionality of the federal law that could ban TikTok.

    The law passed with bipartisan support last year after lawmakers and Biden administration officials expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion towards Beijing’s interests by manipulating the algorithm that populates users’ feeds.

    President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Dec. 27 to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until he is inaugurated and his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.

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  • TikTok creators left in limbo while awaiting decision on potential platform ban

    TikTok creators left in limbo while awaiting decision on potential platform ban

    Will TikTok be banned this month?

    That’s the pressing question keeping creators and small business owners in anxious limbo as they await a decision that could upend their livelihoods. The fate of the popular app will be decided by the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on Jan. 10 over a law requiring TikTok to break ties with its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a U.S. ban.

    At the heart of the case is whether the law violates the First Amendment with TikTok and its creator allies arguing that it does. The U.S. government, which sees the platform as a national security risk, says it does not.

    For creators, the TikTok doomsday scenarios are nothing new since President-elect Donald Trump first tried to ban the platform through executive order during his first term. But despite Trump’s recent statements indicating he now wants TikTok to stick around, the prospect of a ban has never been as immediate as it is now with the Supreme Court serving as the final arbiter.

    If the government prevails as it did in a lower court, TikTok says it would shut down its U.S. platform by Jan. 19, leaving creators scrambling to redefine their futures.

    “A lot of my other creative friends, we’re all like freaking out. But I’m staying calm,” said Gillian Johnson, who benefited financially from TikTok’s live feature and rewards program, which helped creators generate higher revenue potential by posting high-quality original content. The 22-year-old filmmaker and recent college graduate uses her TikTok earnings to help fund her equipment for projects such as camera lens and editing software for her short films “Gambit” and “Awaken! My Neighbor.”

    Johnson said the idea of TikTok going away is “hard to accept.”

    Many creators have taken to TikTok to voice their frustrations, grappling with the possibility that the platform they’ve invested so much in could soon disappear. Online communities risk being disrupted, and the economic fallout could especially be devastating for those who mainly depend on TikTok and have left full-time jobs to build careers and incomes around their content.

    For some, the uncertainty has led them to question whether to continue creating content at all, according to Johnson, who says she knows creators who have been thinking about quitting. But Nicla Bartoli, the vice president of sales at The Influencer Marketing Factory, said the creators she has interreacted with have not been too worried since news about a potential TikTok ban has come up repeatedly over the years, and then died down.

    “I believe a good chunk think it is not going to happen,” said Bartoli, whose agency works to pair influencers and brands.

    It’s unclear how quickly the Supreme Court will issue a decision. But the court could act swiftly to block the law from going into effect if at least five of the nine justices deem it unconstitutional.

    Trump, for his part, has already asked the justices to put a pause on the ban so he could weigh in after he takes office. In a brief — written by his pick for solicitor general — Trump called the First Amendment implications of a TikTok ban “sweeping and troubling” and said he wants a “negotiated resolution” to the issue, something the Biden administration had pursued to no avail.

    While waiting for the dust to settle in Washington, some creators are exploring alternatives ways to promote themselves or their business, encouraging users to follow them on other social media platforms or are investing more time producing non-TikTok content.

    Johnson says she is already strategizing her next move and exploring alternative opportunities. While she hasn’t found a place quite like TikTok, she’s begun to spend more of her time on other platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, both of whom are expected to benefit financially if TikTok vanishes.

    According to a report by Goldman Sachs, the so-called creator economy, which has been fueled in part by TikTok, could be worth $480 billion by 2027.

    Because the opportunity to monetize content exists across a range of platforms, a vast amount of creators have already diversified their social media presence. However, many TikTok creators have credited the platform — and its algorithm — with giving them a type of exposure they did not receive on other platforms. Some say it has also boosted and provided opportunities for creators of color and those from other marginalized groups.

    Despite fears about the fate of TikTok, industry analysts note creators are generally avoiding making any big changes, like abandoning platform, until something actually happens.

    “I’m anxious but also trying to be hopeful in a weird way,” said Brandon Hurst, who credits TikTok with rescuing his business from obscurity and propelling it into rapid growth.

    A year after joining TikTok, the 30-year-old Hurst, who sells plants, said his sales doubled, outpacing the traction he’d struggled to gain on Instagram. He built his clientele through the live feature on TikTok, which has helped him sell more than 77,000 plants. The business has thrived so much that he says he now employs five people, including his husband and mom.

    “For me, this has been my sole way of doing business,” Hurst said.

    Billion Dollar Boy, a New York-based influencer marketing agency, has advised creators to download all of their TikTok content into a personal portfolio, which is especially important for those who post primarily on the platform, said Edward East, the agency’s founder and group CEO. This can help them quickly build their audiences elsewhere. Plus it can serve as a resume for brands who might want to partner with them for product advertisements, East said.

    But until the deadline of Jan. 19 comes around, East said creators should continue to post regularly on TikTok, which has 170 million monthly U.S. users and remains highly effective in reaching audiences.

    If the Supreme Court does not delay the ban, as Trump is asking them to do, app stores and internet service providers would be required to stop providing service to TikTok by Jan. 19. That means anyone who doesn’t have TikTok on their phone would be unable to download it. TikTok users would continue to have access, but the prohibitions — which will prevent them from updating the app — will eventually make the app “unworkable,” the Justice Department has said.

    TikTok said in court documents that it estimates a one-month shutdown would cause the platform to lose approximately a third of its daily users in the U.S. The company argues a shutdown, even if temporary, will cause it irreparable harm, a legal bar used by judges to determine whether to put the brakes on a law facing a challenge. In under three weeks, Americans will know if the Supreme Court agrees.

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  • Trump asks Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban so he can weigh in after he takes office

    Trump asks Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban so he can weigh in after he takes office

    President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.

    The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.

    “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice for solicitor general.

    The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table.

    He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew.

    Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral.

    He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it.

    The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards.

    Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

    The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”

    In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on “alleged ‘risks’ that China could exercise control” over TikTok’s U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates.

    The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information.

    But the government “concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so,” TikTok’s legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks.

    In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China,” its corporate structure carries with it risk.

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  • TikTok asks the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block a US ban unless it’s sold

    TikTok asks the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block a US ban unless it’s sold

    WASHINGTON — TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it.

    Lawyers for the company and China-based ByteDance urged the justices to step in before the law’s Jan. 19 deadline. A similar plea was filed by content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok’s more than 170 million users in the U.S.

    “A modest delay in enforcing the Act will create breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and the new Administration to evaluate this matter — before this vital channel for Americans to communicate with their fellow citizens and the world is closed,” lawyers for the companies told the Supreme Court.

    President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported a ban but then pledged during the campaign to “save TikTok,” said his administration would take a look at the situation.

    “As you know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. His campaign saw the platform as a way to reach younger, less politically engaged voters.

    Trump was meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, according to two people familiar with the president-elect’s plans who were not authorized to speak publicly about them and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

    The companies have said that a shutdown lasting just a month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its daily users in the U.S. and significant advertising revenue.

    The case could attract the court’s interest because it pits free speech rights against the government’s stated aims of protecting national security, while raising novel issues about social media platforms.

    The request first goes to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency appeals from courts in the nation’s capital. He almost certainly will seek input from all nine justices.

    On Friday, a panel of federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an emergency plea to block the law, a procedural ruling that allowed the case to move to the Supreme Court.

    The same panel had earlier unanimously upheld the law over a First Amendment challenge claiming that it violated free speech rights.

    Without a court-ordered freeze, the law would take effect Jan. 19 and expose app stores that offer TikTok and internet hosting services that support it to potential fines.

    It would be up to the Justice Department to enforce the law, investigating possible violations and seeking sanctions. But lawyers for TikTok and ByteDance have argued that Trump’s Justice Department might pause enforcement or otherwise seek to mitigate the law’s most severe consequences. Trump takes office a day after the law goes into effect.

    The Supreme Court could temporarily put the law on hold so that the justices can give fuller consideration to First Amendment and other issues. They also could quickly schedule arguments and try to render a decision by Jan. 19.

    On the other hand, the high court could reject the emergency appeal, which would allow the law to take effect as scheduled.

    With that last prospect in mind, the companies’ lawyers asked for a ruling on their emergency request by Jan. 6 because they’d need the time “to coordinate with their service providers to perform the complex task of shutting down the TikTok platform only in the United States.”

    The case has made a relatively quick trip through the courts once bipartisan majorities in Congress approved the law and President Joe Biden signed it in April.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Colleen Long contributed to this report.

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  • Court denies TikTok’s request to halt enforcement of potential US ban until Supreme Court review

    Court denies TikTok’s request to halt enforcement of potential US ban until Supreme Court review

    A federal appeals court on Friday left in place a mid-January deadline in a federal law requiring TikTok to be sold or face a ban in the United States, rejecting a request made by the company to halt enforcement until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge of the statute.

    Attorneys for TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.

    It’s unclear if the nation’s highest court will take up the case, though some legal experts have said they expect the justices to weigh in due to the types of novel questions it raises about social media, national security and the First Amendment. TikTok is also looking for a potential lifeline from President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to “save” the short-form video platform during the presidential campaign.

    Attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance had requested the injunction after a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the U.S. government and rejected their challenge to the law.

    The statute, which was signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year, requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer due to national security concerns or face a ban in the U.S.

    The U.S. has said it sees TikTok as a national security risk because ByteDance could be coerced by Chinese authorities to hand over U.S. user data or manipulate content on the platform for Beijing’s interests. TikTok has denied those claims and has argued that the government’s case rests on hypothetical future risks instead of proven facts.

    In the request filed last week, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance had asked for a “modest delay” in enforcement of the law so that the Supreme Court could review the case and the incoming Trump administration could “determine its position” on the matter.

    If the law is not overturned, the two companies have said that the popular app will shut down by Jan. 19, just a day before Trump takes office again. More than 170 million American users would be affected, the companies have said.

    The Justice Department had opposed TikTok’s request for a pause, saying in a court filing last week that the parties had already proposed a schedule that was “designed for the precise purpose” of allowing Supreme Court review of the law before it took effect.

    The appeals court issued its Dec. 6 ruling on the matter in line with that schedule, the Justice Department filing said.

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