WMT Walmart Inc

By Sebastian Herrera 

For the millions of TikTok users in the U.S., an important deadline looms. An executive order issued by President Trump Aug. 6 gave ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese parent of the popular video app, 45 days to sell its U.S. operations to an American company or face a ban. A subsequent presidential order gave companies until Nov. 12 for a transaction to be finalized.

It is likely that the tight timeline won't be met, as ByteDance has discussed with the U.S. government possible arrangements that would allow the app to avoid a full sale, according to people familiar with the matter. Deal talks have hit a snag due to new Chinese rules that appear to have made a sale more difficult.

Microsoft Corp., with its partner Walmart Inc., has been a leading company involved in discussions to buy part of TikTok. Another group formed by Oracle Corp. and some of ByteDance's investors, including Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and Coatue Management LLC, have also been part of the discussions.

While President Trump has said TikTok would be banned from the U.S. if a sale is not made by the Sept. 15 deadline, experts say the reality is that TikTok is unlikely to disappear in the coming weeks.

Here is more on what this means for TikTok users and followers in the U.S.

Will TikTok be unusable in the U.S. after the deadline?

Unlike in India, which banned TikTok and other Chinese apps through government authority that can force internet service providers to prevent users from accessing certain websites, no such authority exists in the U.S, experts say. "The sanction against ByteDance should not be able to be used to stop people from using TikTok for information and communication purposes," said Kurt Opsahl, general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for civil liberties in technology.

While the government may lack that broad authority, U.S. officials could order Apple Inc. and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, Mr. Opsahl said. Such a move would limit the app's reach by stopping downloads and cutting off software updates, which over time could affect usability of the app for those who have it. There are a number of ways the government could pursue an app-store ban, Mr. Opsahl said, including further defining restrictions involving TikTok in rules expected to be released after the deadline. U.S. officials have been vague about how the government would implement a TikTok shutdown order.

What are Apple and Google planning?

Neither company has publicly outlined plans for TikTok if a deal is not reached by the deadline. Apple didn't respond to requests for comment and Google declined to comment.

Avery Gardiner, general counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the companies could fight a government ban by saying that it restricts access to communication under the First Amendment. Such arguments have prevailed in censorship cases involving book publishers and newspapers, Ms. Gardiner said. Apple and Google have generally only banned apps that violate their platform rules. TikTok filed a lawsuit in August challenging the president's order, saying then that it had taken vast measures to protect the privacy and security of user data in the U.S. and explained those efforts to the government in a security review.

Are there other ways the U.S. could ban TikTok?

Experts say the president's order could also thwart TikTok by preventing other companies from engaging with the app or providing it with services, since the order targets transactions with the company. Like other social-media platforms, TikTok uses cloud-computing services and sells advertisements. If TikTok were to have to rely on non-American companies for those services, it could have a substantial effect on the usability, speed and security of the app. By attempting to cut off transactions between American companies and TikTok, the order also threatens TikTok's advertising revenue from the U.S., experts say.

How will people be able to access TikTok?

Americans might have to become more like Chinese internet users, some of whom use virtual private networks and set their locations outside the country to get around China's national internet firewall, which blocks numerous websites, including Google and Facebook. Similar VPN workarounds could be an option for U.S. TikTok users, although it is unclear whether Apple and Google would also have to cut off TikTok from their stores overseas if required to remove the app in the U.S. But even if Apple and Google take TikTok off their platforms, experts say users could still access TikTok through sideloaded apps, or ones that haven't gone through Google and Apple's verification processes. This method, however, could potentially expose users to security vulnerabilities and malware.

Has anything like this happened before?

The presidential order against TikTok bars people in the U.S. or subject to U.S. jurisdiction from transactions with ByteDance. The president used a similar strategy last year in an executive order that effectively barred U.S. companies from buying telecommunications network gear and services from Huawei, the Chinese firm that makes phones, tablets and 5G equipment. As with TikTok, the government cited national-security concerns. Yet experts say the U.S. case against Huawei was more easily understood because Huawei's transactions involve physical hardware and other equipment.

The forced sale of U.S. operations is highly unusual since it appears to make it necessary for ByteDance to separate some pieces of TikTok's business geographically, presenting an unusually thorny technical challenge. Mr. Trump said on Thursday that the Sept. 15 deadline would not be extended. For now, TikTokers may have to keep dancing to save their favorite app. Vanessa Pappas, who became the interim head of TikTok last month after CEO Kevin Mayer abruptly resigned, told The Wall Street Journal she aims to keep the platform open, inclusive and as a place for self-expression and community.

Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 13, 2020 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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