TikTok has restricted choices after dropping Supreme Court docket attraction

You’d assume that TikTok would have a Plan B by now.

It’s now clear the corporate by no means deliberate for a state of affairs through which it could lose to the Supreme Court docket. Possibly it couldn’t, on condition that the Chinese language authorities in the end has ultimate say on a sale. Now, TikTok’s leaders are banking on Donald Trump to save lots of them in a last-ditch effort that may unquestionably include strings connected.

Politically, TikTok misplayed its hand at each flip of this multi-year saga. Executives repeatedly dismissed the opportunity of a ban, even going as far as to actually snigger on the thought. They had been blindsided by Congress overwhelmingly agreeing on a ban. Then, they misplaced on attraction to the Supreme Court docket with solely a day left earlier than the legislation goes into impact. The one leverage they seemingly have left is that Trump thinks the app helped him win the election — plus their willingness to let him extract no matter pound of flesh he needs. 

TikTok backed itself into this nook technically, too. It spent over $1 billion on Venture Texas to attempt to appease considerations about US information making its technique to China. Amazingly, TikTok began Venture Texas earlier than the federal government gave its blessing, which after all by no means got here. US information is now walled off in separate infrastructure maintained by Oracle, which must legally cease working with TikTok as of the nineteenth. 

Undoing Venture Texas now could be “a large effort” involving many engineers, somebody who labored on it just lately informed me. Shutting the app down, reasonably than merely eradicating it from US app shops, is TikTok’s solely choice. It’s unclear how this is able to affect the expertise of utilizing TikTok outdoors of the US. It’s an unprecedented state of affairs.

Even nonetheless, TikTok is making an attempt to play it cool externally. Blake Chandlee, the corporate’s president, informed advertisers after the Supreme Court docket’s determination that “we’re optimistic about discovering the very best path ahead” and to anticipate “subsequent steps” earlier than the ban goes into impact. Staff have but to obtain different instructions internally, I’m informed. As I wrote earlier this week, the temper is grim, even amongst those that labored at TikTok throughout the first ban try 4 years in the past.

Provided that nobody wins if TikTok goes away, Trump will most likely nonetheless discover a manner to ensure the app stays working within the US. He’s invited Shou Chew to sit down on the inauguration dais and Elon Musk may very well be in play. However there’s no denying that ByteDance put itself on this nook. To get out of it, there will likely be a worth to pay, and it’s going to price greater than cash.

Some current, noteworthy job modifications within the tech world:

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