The Future of TikTok Is Being Decided This Week

Trump warmed up to TikTok over the course of the election year, promising to protect the beloved app. One of the TikTok’s biggest investors, billionaire Jeff Yass, was also one of Trump’s biggest donors. He also used it to his advantage: Over the summer, Trump joined TikTok and racked up millions of followers and collabs with popular streamers that played a huge role in his campaign’s appeal to young voters. His many podcast appearances with people like Joe Rogan, the Nelk Boys, and Andrew Schultz were also clipped and shared in bite-size pieces throughout the app.

More than 170 million Americans use TikTok, according to the most recent numbers shared by the company. Only 32 percent of Americans support a TikTok ban, according to a recent Pew survey. When a similar study was conducted in May 2023, 50 percent of Americans supported it.

Trump’s inauguration is scheduled for January 20, the day after the deadline to give TikTok more time to find a buyer. I’d bet that Biden would decide to extend it, making TikTok’s future Trump’s problem, but the current president hasn’t given any signals on what he could do. The White House did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

While Trump may have won TikTok this cycle, Democrats don’t see the app as a lost cause. In fact, the Democratic strategists I’ve spoken to have argued that a presence on the app is more necessary than ever.

“I’m against the ban. Not only will it hurt us with younger voters, it will eliminate a channel where Democrats can compete to get their message out,” says Ryan Davis, cofounder and chief operating officer at People First, a political influencer and relational marketing firm that partnered with the Biden and Harris campaigns. “Trump may have won TikTok in 2024, but it’s a channel Democrats demographically should be highly competitive on.”

I genuinely have no idea whether TikTok will come out on top this week. When oral arguments were presented in September, the judges didn’t sound too sold on the idea that the law was, well, unlawful. More likely than not, we’ll still be stuck in this limbo of not knowing whether we’ll be able to scroll and watch important and groundbreaking content like this.

The Chatroom

What do you think? Is there still reason to believe TikTok poses a threat to US national security? Even if that’s true, is this bill the best way to protect the app’s US users from foreign surveillance? Personally, I’ve always thought the law was a dud. If the Chinese government really wanted my data, they could easily buy it off some shady broker online.

Send your thoughts to [email protected].

WIRED Reads

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What Else We’re Reading

🔗 Six Hours Under Martial Law in Seoul: Verge editor Sarah Jeong found herself in the middle of history this week when visiting Seoul. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, she witnessed protests against martial law … incredibly blitzed. (The Verge)

🔗 How the Supreme Court’s Transgender Care Case Could Reverberate Across Health Care: The Supreme Court heard arguments in United States v. Skrmetti on Wednesday that could determine the future of trans health care in America. It could also have trickle down effects on other health care issues like abortion rights. (Stat)

🔗 Professor Apologizes for Using Fake AI-Generated Citations in Defense of Minnesota’s Unconstitutional Deepfake Law: Minnesota is on the verge of adopting a new law outlawing deepfakes, and one of the state’s main witnesses was caught using the same tools to offer a defense of the rules. The hypocrisy is hilarious enough, but the chatbot completely made up some of the cited research as well. (Techdirt)

The Download

On this week’s WIRED Politics Lab podcast, Leah spoke with WIRED security and investigations editor Andrew Couts and business editor Louise Matsakis about protecting yourself from government surveillance. There’s a lot of helpful tips in there, go listen.

It was a big week for big interviews at WIRED! Check out coverage from our event in San Francisco this week. And don’t miss Steven Levy’s killer interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook on our YouTube channel here.

Plus, one thing our polarized nation can agree on.

That’s it for today—thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X, and Signal at makenakelly.32.