President Donald Trump is reportedly considering suspending the ban on TikTok in the United States by executive order when he enters the White House on January 20th.
The president-elect is considering an executive order that would postpone the ban, which is scheduled to go into effect on January 19th. The Washington Post said. However, the report added that Trump's legal basis for suspending the law passed by Congress is questionable.
Under the law, the short video app's U.S. operations must be sold by its Chinese owner by Sunday. If the sale does not occur, new users will not be able to download TikTok from the app store.
But unless the Supreme Court steps in to block the law, TikTok is preparing to completely block the app from U.S. users on Sunday, according to tech news site The Information.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Trump and his team are considering an executive order that would halt enforcement of the law for 60 to 90 days, citing anonymous sources familiar with the deliberations. The Supreme Court is also expected to rule on whether to allow the law to proceed, but a hearing last week indicated it is unlikely to prevent it from becoming law.
“I have warm feelings for TikTok,” President Trump said last month, asking the Supreme Court to suspend enforcement of the law so he could pursue a “political solution” after taking office. Congress votes to ban the app, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, over concerns that the Chinese state could access the data of 170 million U.S. users. .
“TikTok itself is a great platform,” Mike Walz, President Trump's incoming national security adviser, told Fox News on Wednesday. “We're going to find a way to protect people's data while preserving it.”
The New York Times also reported that TikTok's CEO, Shou Zhi Chu, said:, He has been invited to President Trump's inauguration and will sit in a “position of honor.”
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US broadcaster NBC reported that the Biden administration is considering options to keep social media platforms open beyond Sunday in a bid to delay the decision from President Trump.
“Americans should not expect a sudden ban on TikTok on Sunday,” an administration official told NBC.
