Trump says he will 'most likely' give TikTok 90-day reprieve from ban

Donald Trump stated that he would "very likely" grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve, postponing the ban originally scheduled to take effect on Sunday. This decision comes on the eve of his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States.

In an interview with NBC News, Trump indicated that an announcement on the matter could be made as early as Monday once he is in office. This follows TikTok's warning that the platform would "cease operations" on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration guaranteed it would not enforce the ban.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law prohibiting the app from operating in the US unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sold the platform by January 19th. ByteDance has refused to seek a buyer. "A 90-day extension is very likely to happen because it’s the right thing to do. You know, it’s the right thing to do. We have to look at it carefully, it's a very big problem," Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News. He made similar comments to ABC News hours later.

Trump told ABC, "You know, I have the right to make the decision, I'm the one who calls the shots. Very likely, I will extend it for 90 days—you probably know, there's a 90-day extension. I’ll do that until we find a solution." TikTok stated late Friday that the White House and the Justice Department "failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurances to service providers that are critical to maintaining TikTok's availability."

However, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Saturday that TikTok’s warning of imminent shutdown was "a stunt." She stated, "We do not believe there is any reason for TikTok or any company to take action in the coming days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday. We have made our position clear and direct: action to enforce this law will be the responsibility of the next administration. Therefore, TikTok and other companies should raise any concerns with them."

Trump stated on Friday that he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed issues including TikTok. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday. US national security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s data to track US federal employees and contractors, which TikTok denies.

On Friday, the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, accused the US of unfairly targeting TikTok: “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson stated. The platform is extremely popular in the US, with 170 million users. It has also proven to be a valuable tool for US political campaigns to reach younger voters.

Trump had previously supported banning TikTok but has recently stated he has a "fondness" for the app, boasting that his videos garnered billions of views on the platform during his presidential campaign last year. Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app would be removed from app stores and web hosting services in the coming days.

Content creators and small businesses that rely on the app for income told the BBC that their lives would drastically change if the app were shut down. "Indirectly, TikTok is my main source of income because all the brands want their products to be promoted on the app," Nicole Bluhm Garden, a fashion designer and artist who uses TikTok, told the BBC.

TikTok has not responded to BBC inquiries about the implications of its potential "cessation of operations" in the US. One possible outcome is the situation in India, where the platform ran afoul of authorities. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved to shut down dozens of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, in 2020 after a deadly clash with Chinese troops in a disputed border area.

Two weeks later, India's 200 million TikTok users could no longer log in after internet providers were instructed to block access to the app. App stores operated by Google and Apple also stopped offering TikTok, which did not legally challenge India's ban. Since the ban, rival short-video platforms have largely filled the void, such as TikTok imitator Instagram Reels, owned by Meta, and YouTube Shorts, owned by Google. Meta was widely seen as the biggest winner of India's TikTok ban.