US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day exemption from a potential US ban once he takes office on Monday.
“The 90-day extension is something that will most likely be done because it's the right thing to do,” he told NBC in an interview. “If I decide to do it, I will probably announce it on Monday.”
Also on Saturday, the White House threatened TikTok to shut down in the U.S. on Sunday without a new statement from the Biden administration assuring Google, Apple and other companies a “feat.”
“We saw the latest TikTok statement. “This is a marketing stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“We have made our position clear and simple: action to implement this law will be the responsibility of the next administration. Therefore, TikTok and other companies should report any concerns to them.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the White House statement.
On Friday, TikTok said that unless the Biden administration “immediately provides a final statement” and assurances that it will not enforce the ban, the platform will be “forced to phase out” on January 19.
On Thursday, a U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the Biden administration's internal thinking said President Joe Biden would not enforce the ban, leaving the fate of the social media app in the hands of the president…elect Donald Trump.
As the U.S. ban on TikTok goes into effect on Sunday, The National asks cybersecurity strategist Ritesh Kotak what it could look like for the 170 million Americans who use the popular social media app and what it means for Canadian content creators.
Last year, Congress, in a bill signed by Biden, required TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the company by Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. The official said the outgoing administration is leaving implementation of the law – and potential enforcement of the ban – to Trump.
The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld the law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if ByteDance does not sell TikTok, which would cause the popular short-video app to expire.
The court's 9-0 decision leaves the social media platform and its 170 million American users in limbo and its fate in the hands of Trump, who had previously promised to save TikTok upon his return as president on Monday.