A second Donald Trump presidency is expected to be consequential in many ways, and its impact on the tech sector will be a key area after he enters office in January.
An immediate issue for the new president will be the future of one of the biggest social media platforms on the planet, TikTok, which is facing a ban or being sold in the US, which could reshape its business globally.
The ban is being mooted in response to what the US says are the app’s connections to the Chinese state – links which TikTok and parent company ByteDance have repeatedly denied.
During his first term, Mr Trump supported a ban on TikTok, but his stance appears to have soften, and he publicly said he now opposes such a ban and that the app has a “warm spot” in his heart.
The ban, signed into law by President Joe Biden, is due to take effect on January 19, a day before Mr Trump’s inauguration.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear last-ditch legal arguments from TikTok on January 10, and depending the timeframe for that hearing and any decision to come from it, TikTok’s ultimate fate could be back in the hands of Mr Trump.
Banning the app would have a seismic impact on the social media landscape, not just in the US, but globally, as it would remove some of the biggest players in short-form video content from one of its biggest markets, handing control to Meta-owned Instagram.
The wider tech industry also appears to be taking a different approach to the president-elect than during his previous administration, when the biggest firms often distanced themselves from Mr Trump, and in the case of some social media firms, banned him from their platforms after the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
In contrast, it has been reported that some of the biggest executives in the tech sector, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple chief executive Tim Cook, have met Mr Trump in Florida before his return to the White House.
The value of cryptocurrency has also responded to Mr Trump’s election – the price of Bitcoin has soared to its highest ever value, in part due to crypto fan Elon Musk’s proximity to the incoming administration, but also because the president-elect has made no secret of his plans to be pro-crypto and digital assets.
He has also picked crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which sent the price of Bitcoin soaring further.
What remains unclear is how the incoming president will approach the other key tech policy issues, not just in the US, but globally.
The continuing rise of artificial intelligence and the debate around safety parameters needed during its development is a complex and ongoing issue Mr Trump has not spoken much on, and the issue of more general online safety and wellbeing, particularly of younger internet users, is also a policy area the president-elect will be required to take a stance on during the first year of his second term.
