Trump likely to grant TikTok 90-day extension to avert US ban
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Washington: President-elect Donald Trump has indicated he will "most likely" grant TikTok a 90-day extension to finalize a deal that could allow the popular video-sharing app to avoid a US ban.
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump stated he was considering providing TikTok a reprieve after his inauguration on Monday. However, he clarified that no final decision had been made.
A law banning mobile app stores and internet hosting services from offering TikTok in the US is set to take effect on Sunday. The legislation, signed by President Joe Biden last year, gave TikTok's Chinese parent company nine months to divest its US operations to an approved buyer. It also authorizes the sitting President to extend the deadline if negotiations are underway.
"I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will most likely be done because 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 added.
The Biden administration, which will oversee the law’s enforcement, has deferred implementation to the incoming Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated on Friday that the current administration would leave the decision to Trump, whose inauguration is scheduled for the day after the ban is set to take effect.
TikTok issued a statement on Friday urging the Biden administration to provide a "definitive statement" clarifying that the law would not be enforced and that app store operators like Apple and Google, as well as US service providers, would not face penalties for failing to remove TikTok from their platforms. Without such assurances, TikTok warned it "will be forced to go dark."
However, the company did not elaborate on specific plans, such as whether it would voluntarily suspend its US operations at midnight or cease operations entirely after losing access to critical service providers.
In response, the White House dismissed TikTok's statement as "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 on Saturday. "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."
Major stakeholders, including Apple, Google, and Oracle—the company hosting TikTok's US data—have remained silent on their plans regarding the looming Sunday deadline.
With IANS inputs