‘Save TikTok’: Trump proposes plan to revive platform

Less than 24 hours before being sworn in for the second time as president, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account to propose a plan to "save TikTok" after the Chinese social network abided by the Supreme Court upholding its ban in the country approved by the Biden administration. The president-elect added to his list of urgent executive orders one to "extend the deadline before the law's bans take effect" and proposed that the U.S. acquire "a 50% stake in a joint venture. In this way, we save TikTok, we keep it in good hands."

Trump had already been against shutting down the social network and even invited the CEO of ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to his inauguration on Monday, Jan. 20. Following the Supreme Court's ruling last Friday and the company's decision to stop operating in the U.S., the Republican publicly launched on Sunday his plan to resume its activity, once the problems regarding national security are solved.

'Extra time' to extend TikTok

The president-elect launched an initial post in which he simply said "Save TikTok." Subsequently, a second post broke down his plan to carry out his proposal:

"I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order."

TikTok could be worth ‘trillions’ of dollars

Trump then indicated that "I 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. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions."