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President-elect Donald Trump said he would “likely” extend the deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, to drop the video app that faces a country ban that is scheduled to begin on Sunday.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump said he was considering issuing a 90-day extension to the deadline. His comments come a day later TikTok It warned that its 170 million users face an imminent blackout after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a divest-or-ban law passed by Congress last year to address national security concerns. in relation to China.
“A 90-day extension is something that is likely to be done, because it is appropriate,” Trump said. “We have to look closely. This is a very big situation. . . If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday. “
On Friday, Trump said he spoke with President Xi Jinping and spoke on TikTok with the Chinese leader. Chinese state media said the two leaders spoke but did not specify whether TikTok was part of the conversation.
The Biden administration on Friday said it would leave decisions about implementing the law, which begins at midnight Saturday eastern time, to the incoming Trump administration.
That means the companies that provide the video platform — including Apple, Google and Oracle — must decide whether to risk violating the law between the midnight deadline and Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
TikTok said the statements from the Biden administration “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to service providers that are essential to the continued availability of TikTok to more than 170 million Americans”.
It also warned that the video app would “go dark” on January 19 unless the Biden administration “immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers who have committed to non-implementation”.
In a highly bipartisan vote in March, Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok to avoid a country ban on the app.
US lawmakers and security officials believe China’s ownership of the app poses a national security risk because it could be used for espionage and disinformation by the Chinese Communist party. TikTok denies that the Chinese government has any influence over the app.
In his first term, Trump issued an executive order to block TikTok from operating in the US, but the courts blocked it at the last minute. In early 2024, he came out against the congressional divest-or-ban measure on the grounds that it would help Facebook, banning him from the social media platform for two years.
Trump has appointed several China hawks opposed to China’s ownership of TikTok to his administration, including Mike Waltz, a former green beret and Florida congressman, to serve as national security adviser.
Earlier this week, Waltz said the incoming administration would put “steps in place to keep TikTok out of the dark”, saying the law allowed for an extension as long as a “workable deal” was on the table.
After TikTok’s statement on Friday, Rush Doshi, a former Biden administration official in China, wrote to X that the company had only itself to blame.
“TikTok has 268 days to sell itself so it’s not run in China. Everything should have been solved. But they didn’t try. They won’t be allowed in China,” said Doshi.
“Now, in the short term, they want Biden to ignore a bipartisan law that was upheld by the SCOTUS (U.S. Supreme Court) 9-0. If they shut down, that’s on them.”
