Topic: Divestiture

President Trump discusses the potential sale of TikTok during a live media event, suggesting Larry Ellison as a possible buyer. Trump proposes a deal where the U.S. government would receive a significant portion of the sale price in exchange for a permanent operating permit. He estimates the platform's value at one trillion dollars if granted legal certainty in the American market.

TikTok's lawyers highlighted a "carve-out" in the law for e-commerce platforms like Temu, which also utilize Chinese algorithms and collect American user data. The argument suggests that if data security were the sole concern, Congress would not have exempted other major Chinese-controlled platforms. This discrepancy forms the basis of an equal protection argument against the targeted divestiture of TikTok.

President-elect Trump indicated in an NBC News interview that he would likely grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban upon taking office. This move is seen as a strategic use of political currency to gain leverage over both Silicon Valley and the Chinese government. The brief self-imposed shutdown by TikTok is characterized as a publicity stunt designed to pressure the incoming administration for further assurances.