Trump says it might be price preserving TikTok in US for a short time

By Gram Slattery

(Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Sunday that he favored permitting TikTok to maintain working in the USA for at the least a short time, saying he had obtained billions of views on the social media platform throughout his presidential marketing campaign.

Trump’s feedback earlier than a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, have been one of many strongest indicators but that he opposes a possible exit of TikTok from the U.S. market.

The U.S. Senate handed a legislation in April requiring TikTok’s Chinese language father or mother firm, ByteDance, to divest the app, citing nationwide safety issues.

TikTok’s homeowners have sought to have the legislation struck down, and the U.S. Supreme Court docket has agreed to listen to the case. But when the courtroom doesn’t rule in ByteDance’s favor and no divestment happens, the app might be successfully banned in the USA on Jan. 19, someday earlier than Trump takes workplace.

It’s unclear how Trump would go about undoing the TikTok divestiture order, which handed overwhelmingly within the Senate.

“I feel we will have to begin considering as a result of, you realize, we did go on TikTok, and we had an important response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” Trump instructed the group at AmericaFest, an annual gathering organized by conservative group Turning Level.

“They introduced me a chart, and it was a file, and it was so stunning to see, and as I checked out it, I stated, ‘Possibly we gotta preserve this sucker round for a short time’,” he stated.

Trump met with TikTok’s CEO on Monday. Trump stated at a information convention the identical day that he had a “heat spot” for TikTok because of his marketing campaign’s success on the app.

The Justice Division has argued that Chinese language management of TikTok poses a unbroken menace to nationwide safety, a place supported by most U.S. lawmakers.

TikTok says the Justice Division has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing that its content material suggestion engine and consumer knowledge are saved in the USA on cloud servers operated by Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL), whereas content material moderation choices that have an effect on U.S. customers are made in the USA.