TikTok prepares app shutdown in US
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK—TikTok plans to shut US operations of its social media app used by 170 million Americans on Sunday, when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported President-elect Donald Trump, whose term begins a day after a ban would start, is considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days.
The report did not say how Trump could legally do so.
The law signed in April mandates a ban on new TikTok downloads on Apple or Google app stores if Chinese parent ByteDance fails to divest the site.
Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still be able to use the app, except that the law also bars US companies starting Sunday from providing services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of it.
The Trump transition team did not have an immediate comment. Trump has said he should have time after taking office to pursue a “political resolution” of the issue.
No Biden plan to block ban
“TikTok itself is a fantastic platform,” Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News. “We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data.”
The New York Times separately reported that Tiktok CEO has been extended an invitation to attend the president-elect’s inauguration on Monday and sit in “a position of honor.”
A White House official told Reuters Wednesday President Joe Biden has no plans to intervene to block a ban in his final days in office if the Supreme Court fails to act and added Biden is legally unable to intervene absent a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.
However, a NBC report later said the Biden administration has been weighing options to keep the social media platform available to users beyond Sunday, in a bid to defer the decision to Donald Trump.
“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” an administration official said.
