The incoming Trump and Biden administrations went back and forth on Saturday over the status of TikTok and whether to ban the service after the video app said it would be forced to go dark on Sundays if a federal order is issued. The law comes into effect.
President-elect Donald J. Trump told NBC News that he would “most likely” find a way to give the company a 90-day extension once he takes office Monday “because it’s appropriate.”
On Saturday morning, the White House press secretary called claims that TikTok would go dark a “joke.” In a statement late Friday, TikTok called on the Biden administration to ensure that Apple, Google and other tech companies will not be punished for providing TikTok’s services in the United States.
“We have made our position clear and simple,” White House press secretary Carine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “We will leave it to the next administration to take action to implement this law.”
Despite these circumstances, TikTok’s fate remained unclear.
The company’s statement was its latest attempt to pressure the administration to grant a reprieve from a law upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday that effectively bans the service starting Sunday.
The law prohibits app stores and major cloud computing providers from offering TikTok to U.S. consumers unless its Chinese parent, ByteDance, sells it to non-Chinese owners. Lawmakers introduced the bill last year amid concerns that TikTok’s Chinese ownership would pose a national security threat.
TikTok did not elaborate on what will happen on Sunday, including whether it will voluntarily shut down or simply stop functioning because it cannot access the services it needs to stay online. The app reportedly has 170 million users in the United States.
The Biden administration has previously indicated that federal officials will not immediately take action against Apple, Google and other companies under the law.
President Biden signed the TikTok ban into law in April after it passed Congress with bipartisan support. Lawmakers said the Chinese government could pressure ByteDance to extract sensitive data about U.S. users or influence TikTok content for the benefit of the Chinese government.
TikTok said the Chinese government plays no role in the company and that it has spent billions of dollars to address U.S. security concerns. ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing and controlled by China.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court accepted the government’s national security rationale, pointing to “TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to control by foreign adversaries, and the extensive sensitive data the platform collects.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement after the Supreme Court ruling that the process would unfold “over time.”
TikTok said the Biden administration’s comments were not enough to satisfy other companies that they would not be violating the law if they continued to distribute and maintain the app. The companies could face fines of up to $5,000 for each TikTok user who accesses the app from within the U.S. after the ban takes effect.
“The statement released today by the Biden White House and the Department of Justice fails to provide the clarity and assurances needed for service providers essential to maintaining TikTok’s availability to more than 170 million Americans,” the company said.
The loss of that user base, while significant, is not the biggest loss TikTok has suffered. In 2020, it was banned in India, where it has 200 million users. Like the United States, Indian authorities cited national security concerns in their decision against TikTok.
President Trump, who took office Monday, has previously expressed support for TikTok and was considering an executive order that would allow the company to continue operating in the United States.
However, it is unclear whether President Trump’s executive order will effectively stop the ban. Legal experts said it could direct the Justice Department not to enforce the law or to delay enforcement for a period of time, but it is unclear how such an executive order would proceed if challenged in court.
President Trump could also find a buyer, which could extend the deadline by 90 days if a viable deal is on the table. However, no clear buyer emerged.
It was unclear what kind of 90-day extension Trump was considering when he spoke with NBC News on Saturday.
“We have to look at it carefully. “It’s a very big situation,” he told NBC. If he grants the app a 90-day extension, “we’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he added.
