Trump’s delayed TikTok ban boosts billionaire donor Jeff Yass, whose growing stake in the app could reshape its future under MAGA rule, writes Patrick Drennan.
On 31 July 2020, President Donald Trump called for a ban of the social media platform TikTok in America. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. He and his Republican backers believed that TikTok was a national security threat because the Chinese Government, working with ByteDance, could use it as a vehicle to spy on Americans or covertly influence the U.S. public by amplifying or suppressing certain content.
To put this into perspective, media companies Apple and Google have been accused of “spying” on their users’ personal data every day — monitoring their applications and feeds using algorithms based on their search content.
American Jeff Yass is a major shareholder of TikTok. On 1 March 2024, gambling billionaire Yass met with Trump in Florida. He and his wife, Janine Yass, became some of the largest donors in the 2024 U.S. Election cycle, donating $96.2 million to Republican groups and campaigns. Yass also bought millions of Trump’s Truth Social shares.
On 14 March 2024, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), was introduced into Congress. It was passed by a bipartisan Congress in April 2024 and introduced into law (by 360 to 58 votes).
Since then, ByteDance has taken a series of legal actions to overturn the ban, ending at the U.S. Supreme Court.
On 17 January 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the law does not violate the First Amendment rights of the app and its users, upholding the Federal Government’s national security argument and leaving TikTok open to a ban on 19 January unless it is sold to an American company. The Biden Administration did not enforce the ban, leaving it to the incoming Trump Administration.
On Saturday night of 18 January, the TikTok app went down, only to disingenuously re-open 12 hours later with the message‘Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!’
Just got a new alert in the TikTok app:
Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok. pic.twitter.com/WRLrYPaSsF— Andreas Sandre (@andreas212nyc) January 19, 2025
However, the app was still unavailable for download from Apple’s and Google’s app stores.
On 19 January, Trump suggested that the U.S. will own 50 per cent of the company in what he referred to as a “joint venture” that would “make a lot of money.” He did not mention the spying connotations.
Eventual divestiture?
By this, Trump signals that he will eventually use his executive powers to initiate a “qualified divestiture” — defined as ‘a divestiture or similar transaction that the President determines meets the relevant ownership and control requirements’. The Trump Administration will have to show that a foreign adversary no longer controls the app and there will be no operational relationship between U.S. operations and foreign-controlled entities, particularly regarding content recommendation algorithms and data sharing.
On 20 January, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was a guest at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. On the same day, Trump issued an Executive Order directing the Justice Department to ignore the PAFACA for 75 days.
This will allow time for Republican billionaires to increase their shares in TikTok. Jeff Yass currently owns about 7% — worth about $15 billion. Although ByteDance is resistant to selling its advanced algorithms, it ultimately may have no choice.
In part, Trump owes his re-election to social media and billionaires like Jeff Yass. The best way to repay Yass is to allow TikTok to run unimpeded. It makes billions for Yass, who will contribute millions to the MAGA cause. Like Twitter (X) – run by billionaire Elon Musk – the platform will allow conspiracy theories and disinformation to run unchecked.
Overturning the TikTok ban will increase President Trump’s popularity with the 170 million TikTok users and influencers in the United States. Many do not care about his financial incentives, surveillance applications or national security. Trump’s motivations and actions are primarily personal and transactional.
Patrick Drennan is a journalist based in New Zealand, with a degree in American history and economics.
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