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The EU opened an investigation into TikTok Tuesday over allegations that it failed to stop fake accounts and foreign powers from interfering in Romania’s recent presidential election, in the latest blow to the social media app.
The European probe comes as TikTok faces an imminent ban in the US that could see it removed from digital app stores in the country within weeks, unless Chinese parent ByteDance sells the platform to an American company.
In a last-ditch effort, TikTok on Monday also asked the US Supreme Court to temporarily block the ban. The same day, President-elect Donald Trump — who pledged to “save” the app during his most recent campaign — met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who was expected to plead his case for keeping the platform accessible.
SIGNALS
Trump may not be able to fulfil promise to ‘save’ TikTok
Since “Trump is all about optics,” the president-elect could wait for the ban to — scheduled to come into effect on President Joe Biden’s last day in office — to take place and then immediately give TikTok a three-month extension to claim he “saved” the app, Forbes wrote. But Trump’s hands may be tied if he tries to nullify the ban — which an expert told The Associated Press would not be lawful — or attempt to circumvent it: The law stipulates heavy fines for American tech giants that try to keep TikTok accessible. “A mere Truth Social post or even an Executive Order might not be enough to convince American companies” to keep the app available, Forbes wrote.
Zuckerberg might benefit most from TikTok ban
“Virtually any app with a large, young user base” is poised to benefit from the US TikTok ban, Bloomberg wrote, but Meta and Google are best-placed to absorb its 170 million monthly users. Meta has Reels, a short-form video ecosystem similar to TikTok, and Google has YouTube shorts. Trump initially complained that a TikTok ban would make Meta’s products “too powerful,” the outlet wrote, but the president-elect’s animosity toward CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have “softened” in recent months. Zuckerberg might also aim for an informal advisory role to aTrump White House in order to shape tech policy, Bloomberg reported.
Falsehoods circulating on TikTok blame Brussels for Romania’s election fiasco
Despite the probe into Romanian election interference, TikTok accounts supporting far-right candidate Călin Georgescu are now spreading the falsehood that European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen personally intervened to nullify the vote, according to Euronews. The commission has repeatedly attested that it is the Romanian government — not the EU — that oversees the country’s electoral proceedings. These accounts are also promoting “anti-EU and anti-Western messages,” Euronews wrote. Still, legal experts have called Bucharest’s decision to annul the vote “unusual” given that Romanian authorities have not disclosed any evidence supporting the allegation that Moscow used TikTok to subvert the election.