TikTok banned in the United States: the social network obtains a delay from Trump who wants a 50% participation… we take stock

Donald Trump, who was sworn in for a second term as President of the United States on Monday, signed a decree upon his return to the White House granting a 75-day reprieve to the video-sharing app TikTok, whose activities in the United States should have ceased the day before.

Donald Trump, who was sworn in for a second term as president of the United States on Monday, signed an executive order upon his return to the White House intended to grant a 75-day reprieve to the video-sharing app TikTok, which was initially supposed to end its activities in the country the day before.

A signed executive order

In signing the executive order, among a range of measures announced in the hours following his inauguration, Donald Trump suggested to reporters in the Oval Office that the American authorities should become owners of half of TikTok's activities in the United States for having kept the application in service. The Republican leader warned that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing were to oppose a deal between Washington and TikTok over the platform’s U.S. operations.

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This is a new episode in the soap opera surrounding TikTok in recent days, between legal steps and political maneuvers, while the millions of American users of the application wondered about its fate. Donald Trump orders in the decree signed Monday evening to the American Department of Justice to give his team enough time to “determine the course of action” with regard to TikTok, asking the department to take no action for a period of 75 days.

Still in the dark

However, the legality of this decree remains unclear, as the law requiring the sale of TikTok’s American operations under penalty of a ban in the country was approved by a large majority of the US Congress, enacted by Donald Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and unanimously upheld by the US Supreme Court. There is no provision in the law to authorize Donald Trump to extend the deadline initially granted to ByteDance, the group that owns TikTok, to sell the platform’s American operations.

The turmoil surrounding TikTok comes at a time of tension in relations between the United States and China, especially since Donald Trump repeated his desire to impose large customs duties on imports from China ahead of his inauguration. Donald Trump, however, said he was willing to talk more directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping, not ruling out a visit to China on Monday evening.

He said he imagined that the American authorities would take a 50% stake in TikTok and thus be able to control the platform's activities in the United States. If no agreement is approved by China, continued the American president, “there is no value”, the application would then have to close in the United States. “So if we create value, why shouldn't we be entitled to half?”, Donald Trump asked, estimating the value of the company at several hundred billion dollars