(Corrected paragraph three, the position is not subject to Senate confirmation)

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump will not rule out continued Chinese ownership of TikTok if steps are taken to ensure that American users’ data is protected and stored in the U.S., the upcoming National said. Security Adviser Mike Waltz on CNN on Sunday.

TikTok stopped working for its 170 million American users on Sunday after a law took effect barring the app’s continued operation due to concerns among US politicians that Americans’ data could be used. by Chinese officials.

Waltz told CNN that the president-elect is working to “save TikTok” and doesn’t rule out continued Chinese ownership along with “firewalls to make sure data is protected here on US soil.”

Trump said he would “likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users of the app.

Waltz also spoke to CBS News on Sunday and said Trump needed time to resolve issues related to TikTok, while adding that an extension was needed for TikTok to vet proposed buyers.

However, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson sent conflicting signals, saying he believed Trump would push TikTok parent ByteDance to sell the app.

“The way we’re reading that is he’s going to try to force a real divestiture, a change of hands, the ownership,” Johnson said. “It’s not the platform that members of Congress are worried about. It’s the Chinese Communist Party.”

Some of Trump’s Republican colleagues in Congress opposed the idea of ​​TikTok’s extension.

Republican US Senators Tom, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement on Sunday that “there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of (the ban) effective date.”