KUALA LUMPUR — US President-elect Donald Trump said giving TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a ban in the country is on the cards once he takes office on Monday.
The reprieve is “most likely an option” his administration will look at to prevent TikTok’s blackout under the divest-or-ban order imposed under the Joe Biden presidency.
Trump made these remarks in an interview with NBC, underscoring his previous statements on preserving the China-owned short reel platform’s operations in the US through political resolution or finding a buyer.
USA Today said while the ban under law is to officially take effect on Sunday in the US, it is not clear how the Justice Department will actually enforce it. It may be up to app stores and web-hosting companies to remove TikTok from downloads or block it from loading.
TikTok however, has said it will be “forced to go dark” without more clarity from Biden’s outgoing administration.
The 90-day reprieve is allowed under the law Biden signed, provided TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, shows that it is making substantial progress towards selling its US operations.
While TikTok has said previously it will not sell, US-based media have reported that Trump ally, billionaire Elon Musk, has held talks with Chinese officials, according to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.
TikTok has challenged Biden’s ban in court but lost, with the US Supreme Court on Friday upholding the law.
The law was passed by his administration on grounds of the short video app being a Chinese tool for spying on Americans, of whom nearly 170 million use the platform. – January 19, 202