President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said that he “most likely” would give TikTok 90 more days to work out a deal that would allow the popular video-sharing platform to avoid a US ban.
In an NBC News interview, Trump said that he hadn’t made a decision yet but was considering giving TikTok a reprieve after his inauguration on Monday.
A law banning mobile app stores and internet hosting services from offering TikTok to US users will come into effect on Sunday.
The law, passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year, gave TikTok’s China-based parent company nine months to sell its US operations to an approved buyer. It also permits the sitting president to extend the deadline if a sale is underway.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate,” Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview.
“We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation. If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Friday that the Biden administration would leave the implementation of the law to Trump, as his inauguration is the day after the ban takes effect.
In a statement later Friday, TikTok asked for “a definitive statement” saying the Biden administration would not enforce the law or try to fine app store operators like Apple and Google and other US companies if they don’t stop making TikTok available Sunday.
Without those assurances, TikTok said it “will be forced to go dark”. But the company did not provide details, including whether it would voluntarily shut down its US platform at midnight or suspend its operations after losing access to service providers it relies on.
The White House on Saturday called TikTok’s statement “a stunt”.
“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”
Neither Apple, Google or Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s data on its servers, have responded to questions about what they plan to do on Sunday.
With AP inputs