TikTok threatens to ‘go dark’ on Sunday – as Trump dangles a 90-day reprieve once he’s sworn in the following day
President-elect Donald Trump is “likely” to give TikTok a 90-day reprieve as the app says it will “go dark” Sunday after the Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning it this week.
Trump made the comment in a phone interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker a day after the ruling was issued.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at,” he said. “The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation.”
If a reprieve is issued, Trump will most likely announce it on Monday, he told the outlet.
Following the Supreme Court decision Friday, TikTok said it would shut down in the US “unless the Biden administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement.” President Joe Biden has signaled he will not enforce the ban.
If he did, he would only be able to do so during his final day in office on Sunday. There is no precedent for a social media ban and it’s unclear how one could be enforced.
TikTok is used by 170 million people in the US and seven million of those individuals make an income from the short-video platform. TikTok took in $10bn in revenue last year, according to The New York Times.
Lawmakers and Biden’s administration have raised concerns over potential risks associated with the app. Among them are beliefs that the platform might be owned or controlled by the Chinese government. The company has said it is not.
Still, US officials have claimed Chinese officials could use the platform to spy on Americans or influence Americans by surreptitiously harvesting users’ data, and amplifying or suppressing certain content. It’s a position the Supreme Court sided with, determining that national security threats overrode concerns about the First Amendment.
“Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,” the court wrote in its ruling.
In April, Biden signed legislation requiring TikTok to be sold by its owner, Chinese company ByteDance, or face a ban. The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, gave the company 270 days. The clock runs out Sunday.
TikTok and its parent company sued the Biden administration in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in May over the law, claiming it violated the First Amendment.
But, that legal effort failed when the Supreme Court issued its ruling. Ultimately, enforcing such a ban will fall to the Trump administration.
The law does allow for the president to grant a one-time 90-day extension from January 19.
Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform, reportedly made TikTok one of his key discussion topics with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. He’d previously asked the Supreme Court to stay a ban so he could work out a deal to sell the app to American buyers.
In comments made after the call, Trump said the two leaders had “a great talk about TikTok.”
Upon signaling his readiness to stop a ban, the company’s CEO Shou Zi Chew issued a video statement on the platform.
“On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the US. This is a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” Chew said.
“We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a President who truly understands our platform.”
Trump could only grant the extension on Monday after he’s sworn in, meaning the app could still turn off Sunday. Service providers like Google and Apple could face financial and legal penalties for allowing users to continue accessing the platform.
Even if the incoming president does grant the reprieve, it’s unclear if he’d have any recourse once the extension expires.
Already, TikTok users are discussing how to bypass a federal ban, including through the use of virtual private networks which are often used in China to get through the country’s Great Firewall. Experts have said the app won’t disappear from users’ phones but new users won’t be able to download it and updates won’t be available for existing users.
The platform allows users to go through hundreds of short, seconds-long, videos in about half an hour and is considered highly addictive. In October, more than a dozen states and the District of Colombia sued TikTok claiming it harms the mental health of children on the platform.
Speaking at a news conference after filing the suit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the app’s leaders have “chosen profit over the health and safety, well-being and future of our children... And that is not something we can accept. So we’ve sued.”
At the time, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said: “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.