Donald Trump said he would “most likely” grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban set to take effect on Sunday, the eve of his inauguration as the 47th US president.
Trump told NBC News that an announcement on the matter would likely be made Monday once he takes office.
It comes after the social media platform warned it would “go dark” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration provided assurances the ban would not be enforced.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning the app in the United States unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by January 19. ByteDance declined to seek a buyer.
“The 90-day extension is something that will most likely be done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said during from a telephone interview with NBC News.
He made similar remarks hours later to ABC News.
“Well, I have the right, as you know, I’m the one who’s going to take the lead,” he told ABC. “Most likely, I’ll extend it for 90 days – you have the 90 day extension, as you probably know. I’ll do it until we figure something out.”
TikTok said Friday evening that the White House and Justice Department had “failed to provide necessary clarity and assurance to service providers who are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability.”
But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Saturday that TikTok’s warning that it was about to go dark was “a stunt.”
“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the coming days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” she said.
“We have made our position clear and direct: action to implement this law will be up to the next administration, so TikTok and other companies should raise their concerns with them.”
Trump said Friday that he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok, among other issues.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to be among the tech executives at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
U.S. national security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s data to track U.S. federal employees and contractors, something TikTok has denied.
On Friday, the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC accused the United States of unfairly removing TikTok: “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.
The platform is very popular among the 170 million users it claims to have in the United States. It has also proven to be a valuable tool for American political campaigns aimed at reaching young voters.
Trump had previously supported banning TikTok, but more recently said it was a “hot spot” for the app, touting the billions of views he says it attracted to the platform during the presidential campaign. ‘last year.
Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app will be removed from app stores and web hosting services in the coming days.
Content creators and small businesses who rely on the app for income told the BBC their lives would be significantly changed if the app was shut down.
“Indirectly, TikTok accounted for the majority of my income because all brands want their products promoted on the app,” Nicole Bloomgarden, a fashion designer and artist who uses TikTok, told the BBC.
TikTok did not respond to a BBC inquiry into what “going dark” potentially means in the United States.
A possible outcome is what happened in India, when the platform fell victim to the fault of the authorities of that country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved to disable dozens of Chinese apps, including TikTok, in 2020 after a deadly altercation with Chinese forces along disputed border areas.
Two weeks later, TikTok’s 200 million Indian users were no longer able to log in after that country’s internet providers were ordered to block access to the app.
App stores run by Google and Apple also stopped offering TikTok, which did not legally challenge India’s ban.
Since the ban, competitors’ short-form platforms have largely filled the void with TikTok copycats, Meta-owned Instagram Reels and Google-owned YouTube Shorts.
Meta is widely seen as the big winner from India’s TikTok ban.
