TikTok’s decision to shut the app down for barely 12 hours – only to restore access to the China-owned app on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump chimed in – appeared to be a PR stunt meant to stoke a public outcry, policy experts told The Post.
“TikTok’s early shutdown either came down to corporate incompetence or a deliberate PR stunt to encourage a manufactured sense of panic,” said Joel Thayer, a DC-based tech lawyer and president of the Digital Progress Institute. “Given it’s waffling, I’m assuming it’s the latter.”
The popular video-sharing app pulled the plug for all US users late Saturday night but began restoring service Sunday afternoon after Trump vowed to “save” TikTok through an executive order Monday that would delay enforcement of the divestiture law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell its stake.
The company thanked Trump “for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties.”
However, the Biden administration had already said it would not enforce the law, and Trump previously signaled ahead of the shutdown that he was against the ban and would “most likely” issue the executive order.
The company’s leadership has acted as “an unsympathetic and disingenuous broker” in its dealings with Congress and the public over the last several years, Thayer said.
“The truth is that, even before Congress enacted the law, the US has told TikTok how to fix its blatant national security concerns for over 5 years and the company did nothing,” he added. “Now, after it attempted to bring bogus First Amendment claims to delay the law’s enforcement and on the eve of its ban, it wants a pity party.”
Under the divestiture law, app store operators like Google and Apple face penalties of $5,000 per user if they allow new downloads of the Bytedance-owned app after the Jan. 19 deadline. Service providers like Oracle and Akamai also faced lesser liability for supporting the app’s operation.
As written, the law did not require TikTok to go dark for people who had already downloaded it on their phones, or nor did it ban Americans from accessing the app.
A TikTok representative declined further comment and pointed to the company’s earlier statement.
Searches for TikTok yielded no results in Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App store as of 2:45 pm ET – a sign that the US tech giants still weren’t willing to risk massive penalties outlined in the law, even after Trump’s statement.
Google declined comment on the situation. A message in Apple’s App Store said the company was “obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates.”
Oracle and Akamai representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“This may be a game for TikTok, but it isn’t a game for Apple and Google,” said Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of “Countering China’s Great Game. “They need to comply with the law, regardless of TikTok’s shenanigans.”
“The law that Congress passed and the Supreme Court upheld requires Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores if it is still owned and controlled by a foreign adversary today – which it is,” Sobolik added.
Trump said he would “like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture.”
“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up [sic],” Trump said. “Without US approval, there is no TikTok.”
TikTok said it would “work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
Despite Trump’s assurances, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who previously warned that the liabilities could amount to $850 billion, told service providers to think twice about ignoring the law.
“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 wrote on X. “Think about it.”
Cotton and fellow Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts had earlier said there was “no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date.”
“For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China,” the senators said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, also threw cold water on the notion that TikTok could come back without adhering to the law’s requirement that its parent company ByteDance divest.
“I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News.
The Biden White House had previously referred to TikTok’s threat to go dark as a “stunt.”
“It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” outgoing White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week.
Congress passed the divestiture law with overwhelming bipartisan support due to concerns that TikTok essentially functioned as a spyware and propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party – facilitating everything from mass data collection on Americans to subtle manipulation of public opinion through its algorithm.
TikTok has denied wrongdoing. The company repeatedly said it would not sell, even as the deadline approached. Chinese government officials vowed to block any forced sale.
The company unsuccessfully argued that the divestiture law violated the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s nine justices unanimously ruled against TikTok and ByteDance.
“Unless and until TikTok is no longer controlled by Beijing, the national security threat that motivated the divestiture law hasn’t been addressed,” said Evan Swarztrauber, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation.”
As The Post reported, some so-called “TikTok refugees” flocked to China-owned alternative RedNote ahead of the ban – even as experts warned that it carried even greater security risks.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
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