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 extension to avoid a ban that was scheduled to take effect on Sunday, which coincides with the eve of his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States. Trump, in an interview with NBC News, indicated that he might announce this on Monday once he is in office.

This came after the social media platform warned it would "cease operations" on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration guaranteed it would not enforce the ban. This followed a Supreme Court ruling on Friday upholding a law that prohibits the app from operating in the U.S. unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by January 19. ByteDance has refused to seek a buyer.

“A 90-day extension is very likely going to be implemented because it's the appropriate thing to do. You know, it’s the appropriate thing to do. We have to look at this very carefully. This is a very big situation,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News. He made similar comments hours later in an interview with ABC News. He told ABC, "Well, as you know, I have the power to do everything. Very likely, I will extend it for 90 days - you probably know, there is a 90-day extension. I’ll do that until we find a solution."

TikTok said late Friday that the White House and Justice Department had “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurances to service providers that are essential to maintaining TikTok’s availability.” But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Saturday that TikTok's warning about its imminent shutdown was a "stunt." She stated, "We don't believe that there is any reason for TikTok or any company to take action in the days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday. We have been clear and direct in our position: the actions to enforce this law will be the responsibility of the next administration. Therefore, TikTok and other companies should raise any concerns with them."

Trump said 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, along with other tech executives. U.S. national security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s data to track U.S. federal employees and contractors, but TikTok denies this. On Friday, the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. accused the U.S. of unfairly targeting TikTok: “China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.

The platform is very popular in the U.S., with 170 million users. It has also proven to be a valuable tool for U.S. political campaigns to reach younger voters. Trump had previously supported banning TikTok, but has recently expressed "fondness" for the app and boasted that his videos on the platform garnered billions of views during last year’s presidential campaign. Under a law passed last April, the U.S. 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 have 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 brands want their products promoted on the app," Nicole Bloomgarden, a fashion designer and artist who uses TikTok, told the BBC. TikTok has not responded to the BBC’s inquiries about what its possible “cessation of operations” in the U.S. would mean.

One possible outcome is what happened when the platform ran afoul of authorities in India. After a deadly clash between Chinese and Indian troops in a disputed border region, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shut down dozens of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, in 2020. Two weeks later, India’s 200 million TikTok users were unable to log on after Indian internet providers were instructed to block access to the app. App stores run by Google and Apple also stopped offering TikTok, which did not legally challenge India’s ban. Since the ban, rival short-form video platforms like Meta’s Instagram Reels and Google’s YouTube Shorts have largely filled the void.

Meta is widely considered the biggest winner of the TikTok ban in India.