- The Biden administration will leave it to Trump to enforce the TikTok ban.
- Congress ruled last year that Chinese firm ByteDance should sell TikTok or see it banned.
- Trump takes office on January 20, the day after the deadline for ByteDance to sell.
President Joe Biden’s administration is not planning to implement the TikTok ban set to take effect on Sunday.
That would leave it to President-elect Donald Trump and his officials to act after they take office on January 20.
The law, which was passed by Congress and signed by Biden in April of last year, requires TikTok to be banned unless ByteDance, its China-based parent company, sells the app’s US operations by January 19.
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
“President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President’s desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,” she added.
The bill that would ban TikTok from US app stores also gave Biden the ability to grant ByteDance a 90-day extension if several conditions were met, including if there was “evidence of significant progress” made toward selling TikTok’s US operations.
Trump has defended the app, which was banned amid concerns user data could be accessed by the Chinese government.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s incoming national security advisor, told Fox News on Wednesday that Trump would seek to preserve the app, used by around 170 million Americans.
“We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data. And that’s the deal that will be in front of us,” Waltz said.
He suggested an executive order could be used to protect it, but offered few details on how this might work in practice.
Last month, Trump called on the US Supreme Court to pause the ban. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday.
Following the ruling, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video to TikTok thanking Trump for his commitment to working with TikTok to keep the app running in the US.
There have been several potential TikTok buyers, but it’s unclear if or to what extent ByteDance has sought to divest. ByteDance and TikTok have not publicly shown any interest in a sale.
Democratic former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday that more time was needed to find a US buyer.
“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.
It’s also unclear what will happen to the app on Sunday if Biden, Trump, or the Supreme Court do not step in before then to save it.
The legislation passed last year requires platforms in the US such as Apple or Google to stop offering the app or updating it when the sale deadline passes, meaning it’d effectively “go dark” or be unavailable.
