You would think that TikTok would have a Plan B by now.
It is now clear that the company had never planned for a scenario in which it would lose in the Supreme Court. Perhaps this could not happen, given that the Chinese government ultimately has the final say on the sale. Now, the leader of TikTok is banking current Donald Trump To save them in a last ditch effort, which will undoubtedly come with some conditions.
Politically, TikTok played its wrong hand at every turn of this multi-year saga. Officials have repeatedly dismissed the possibility of a ban, even literally laughing at the ideaHe was surprised by the Congress's overwhelming approval of the ban. Then, they lost on appeal Only one day is left for the law to be implemented and reach the Supreme Court. It appears the only leverage they have is that Trump thinks the app helped him win the election — as well as his willingness to let them flesh him out as much as he wants.
TikTok also gave its support in this corner technically. It spent more than $1 billion on Project Texas to address concerns about US data reaching China. Surprisingly, TikTok started Project Texas First The government gave its blessing, which of course never came. The US data is now locked in a separate infrastructure created by Oracle, which is legally required to stop working with TikTok by the 19th.
Undoing Project Texas now would be “a huge effort” involving many engineers, someone who worked on it recently told me. Shutting down the app, rather than simply removing it from the US App Store, is TikTok's only option. It's unclear how this will affect the experience of using TikTok outside the US. This is an unprecedented situation.
Still, TikTok is trying to make it look good on the outside. blake chandleecompany president, told advertisers Following the Supreme Court decision that “we are optimistic about finding the best way forward” and look forward to “next steps” before the restrictions are implemented. I am told that employees have not yet received other guidelines internally. As I wrote earlier this weekThe mood is also grim among people who worked on TikTok during the first ban attempt four years ago.
Given that no one wins if TikTok goes away, Trump will probably still find a way to ensure the app keeps running in the US. he is invited chew shaw To sit on the inauguration stage and Elon Musk may be in the gameBut it can't be denied that ByteDance has put itself in this corner. To get out of this, there will be a price to pay, and it will cost more than money.
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