While TikTok waits to see if it can delay an upcoming ban in the US, speculation is swirling about what options ByteDance, the app's parent company, might have to survive in one of its largest markets.
A US federal appeals court last week a law passed by Congress that gives China-based ByteDance until January 19 to divest TikTok's assets, or be banned in the US.
The law, which received bipartisan support, is rooted in national security concerns over the fear of user data being compromised by China, although those claims have been consistently disputed by ByteDance. “A modest delay in enforcing the Act will simply create breathing room for the Supreme Court to conduct an orderly review and for the incoming administration to evaluate this matter – before one of this country’s most important speech platforms is shuttered,” read TikTok's injunction request.
“In its public submissions, the government sought to defend the Act based on purported concerns about China manipulating the content Americans see on TikTok or misappropriating their private data … The government repeatedly admitted, however, that it has no evidence that China has ever engaged in such behaviour.”
In response to TikTok's request for an injunction, the US Justice Department on Thursday filed an argument for the circuit court to turn down the request.
"Continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security, and both Congress and this Court took account of the competing interests of users of the application," the argument read in part.
Mark MacCarthy, a senior fellow at the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law in Washington, said he believes TikTok's request for a conditional stay will probably be granted, potentially extending the January 19 deadline set by bipartisan legislation.
“I think the Supreme Court will take up the case,” Prof MacCarthy said, noting that the court battle could set a precedent. “It is a compelling conflict between First Amendment jurisprudence and the national security state and the court will want to issue a definitive judgment.”
Ultimately, he believes the Supreme Court will uphold the circuit court's decision. “It will probably give full discretion to the government with a rational national security demand conflicting with the First Amendment,” he explained, before pivoting to his own personal stance on the law that puts TikTok's US future in jeopardy.
“A TikTok ban would be terrible on policy grounds but it should withstand constitutional challenge,” he said, saying that he thinks the law is too rooted in a confrontational US policy towards China which could quickly escalate. Some have also speculated the success of TikTok in the US has caused jealousy due in part to the fact that it wasn't created by a US company, which in turn has fuelled efforts to get the platform banned.
Will Trump save TikTok?
Though he expressed concern about TikTok's China ownership during his first term in the White House, during his 2024 presidential run, Donald Trump changed his mind. He joined the platform and quickly gained 14.7 million followers, consistently using the video-sharing social app to communicate with supporters and provoke detractors. Mr Trump also used his own app, Truth Social, to announce that he wanted to prevent TikTok from being banned in the US.
“For all those who want to save TikTok in America, vote Trump,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform on September 4. In a video that lasted less than one minute, he said he was “now a big star on TikTok” and added that “we're setting records”, referring to his 14.5 million followers on the platform.
Even as President, however, Mr Trump's path to saving TikTok is narrow. He could try to convince Congress to repeal the law, but it could be risky for him to spend political capital on legislation that received Democratic and Republican support.
What would a ban look like?
Barring any decision from the Supreme Court that would deem the TikTok legislation unconstitutional, or any move from president-elect Trump that would have Congress repeal the law, when January 19 arrives TikTok will probably be removed from iPhone and Android app stores. It will continue to work for most, at least until app updates make it unusable in the US.
It is highly unlikely, although not impossible, that the platform will be blocked overnight. ByteDance has repeatedly said it has no plans to follow the legislation that requires it to sell TikTok's assets to a US entity, but there is a scenario in which it could sell other parts of the app such as the user accounts, while retaining the coveted TikTok algorithm.
Under that sort of arrangement, however, the algorithm which helps fuel TikTok's popularity would remain under ByteDance's control, rendering other assets less valuable. Some US investors and entrepreneurs have pitched the idea of buying TikTok, but nothing has come to fruition, and again, ByteDance says it has no plans to sell.
Palestine Information Office v Shultz
During the initial hearing, in which TikTok's lawyers fought for the platform's survival, circuit court judges brought up a case known as Palestine Information Office v Shultz, which they said provided precedent to force the sale of TikTok. The case of PIO v Shultz stretches back to 1987, when then US secretary of state George Shultz, and ultimately the US State Department, ordered the closure of the Palestine Information Office in Washington DC.
That decision stemmed from a US law passed in 1982 known as the Foreign Missions Act, which led to tighter regulation with regard to foreign missions inside the US. Since the US classified the Palestine Liberation Organisation as a terrorist group, it applied the Foreign Missions Act to the Palestine Information Office as well. The law was challenged, but upheld.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
Last 10 NBA champions
2017: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-1
2016: Cleveland bt Golden State 4-3
2015: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-2
2014: San Antonio bt Miami 4-1
2013: Miami bt San Antonio 4-3
2012: Miami bt Oklahoma City 4-1
2011: Dallas bt Miami 4-2
2010: Los Angeles Lakers bt Boston 4-3
2009: Los Angeles Lakers bt Orlando 4-1
2008: Boston bt Los Angeles Lakers 4-2
MATCH INFO
England 2
Cahill (3'), Kane (39')
Nigeria 1
Iwobi (47')
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
The biog
Favourite Emirati dish: Fish machboos
Favourite spice: Cumin
Family: mother, three sisters, three brothers and a two-year-old daughter
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
HOW TO WATCH
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WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3EName%3A%20DarDoc%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3EFounders%3A%20Samer%20Masri%2C%20Keswin%20Suresh%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20HealthTech%3Cbr%3ETotal%20funding%3A%20%24800%2C000%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Flat6Labs%2C%20angel%20investors%20%2B%20Incubated%20by%20Hub71%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi's%20Department%20of%20Health%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%2010%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
SQUADS
Bangladesh (from): Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah Riyad, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Taijul Islam, Mosaddek Hossain, Nayeem Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadat Hossain, Abu Jayed
Afghanistan (from): Rashid Khan (capt), Ihsanullah Janat, Javid Ahmadi, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Ikram Alikhil, Mohammad Nabi, Qais Ahmad, Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Afsar Zazai, Shapoor Zadran
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Samaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff
By Sean Penn
Simon & Schuster
