President Joe Biden will not enforce the scheduled Jan. 19 ban on TikTok in the hours before Donald Trump is inaugurated.
The Supreme Court is still reviewing the ban, and a decision is expected to come out on Friday.
Biden signed the TikTok ban into law last year, requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the company by Jan. 19. An official who detailed Biden’s thinking to the Associated Press said the outgoing administration was leaving the implementation of the law and any enforcement of the ban to Trump.
Trump wishes to stall the ban enough so that his administration can decide what to do with the app. He issued an amicus brief last month seeking to stall the ban until he takes office.
When he takes office, Trump is considering using an executive order to suspend enforcement of the ban for 60 to 90 days while they negotiate a sale or other solution to keep the app afloat. The app played a role in his reelection bid, adding another element to his campaign that was missing from 2020.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said last month.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew will attend Trump’s inauguration and be granted a prime seating location on the dais. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), suggested the administration will take steps to “keep TikTok from going dark.”
He added that the federal law that could ban TikTok by Sunday also “allows for an extension as long as a viable deal is on the table.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he spoke with Biden on Thursday to advocate extending the ban deadline. “It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” Schumer said Thursday on the Senate floor.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) disagrees, saying the app has had ample time to find a buyer.
“TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda,” Cotton said.
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Waltz said on Wednesday that “TikTok is a great platform that many Americans use and has been great for [Trump’s] campaign and getting his message out. But No. 2, he’s going to protect their data.”
“He’s a deal-maker,” Waltz added of Trump. “I don’t want to get ahead of our executive orders, but we’re going to create this space to put that deal in place.”
