TikTok’s future remains uncertain as Trump mulls a 90-day extension following a Supreme Court ruling upholding the app’s ban.
President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will probably give TikTok a temporary reprieve from a looming ban over the social media platform’s China ties, which would allow the platform to continue operating in the United States as his administration undertakes a careful review of the situation.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” he told NBC in a Jan. 18 interview. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” the company said in a statement on Jan. 17.
TikTok’s “go dark” warning was made after a U.S. Supreme Courtrulingearlier on Friday that upheld a law banning the app in the United States unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by Sunday. ByteDance has repeatedly insisted it will not sell.
The White House weighed in on the controversy on Saturday, saying that TikTok’s threat to pull the plug on the app on Sunday was little more than a gimmick.
“It is a stunt, and 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,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told media outlets.
The press secretary added that implementation of the law banning TikTok—which President Joe Biden signed into the law in April 2024—would be up to the incoming Trump administration.
“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,” Jean-Pierre said.
Under the law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the Chinese-owned platform must either be sold to a U.S. company by Jan. 19 or be banned from the United States. Failing divestiture, TikTok will also have to be removed from app stores, which potentially face up to a $5,000 fine for each user who continues to access the app.
American national security officials have cautioned that TikTok’s data harvesting capabilities could be leveraged by Chinese spies to surveil federal workers and contractors; allegations TikTok has repeatedly denied.
In its opinion upholding the ban, the Supreme Court noted Congress singled out TikTok and ByteDance because the social media platform’s “scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns.”
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the high court wrote in the opinion.
“But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,” it added.
Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Shou Chew has been lobbying to keep the app from being banned. Chew is rumored to be planning to attend a number of inaugural events in Washington this weekend in support of Trump, whom he thanked for his “commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States.”
It was under Trump’s first administration that the initial push to ban TikTok was launched. Trump spearheaded the ban by issuing an executive order in 2020 that cited the national security threat posed by China’s influence over the app and the user data it collects.
“This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information—potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,” Trump’s order reads.
Trump said after Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that he would decide whether to maintain the TikTok ban after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
“The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.