TikTok still faces a potential ban in the United States, but it might not happy on January 19th as previously predicted. The ban of the social media platform owned by ByteDance seemed all but certain after the Supreme Court ruled it would uphold and enforce the ban that’s been a long time coming now, though President-Elect Donald Trump now says that he will likely approve an extension that would delay the ban. The news of this possible reprieve for TikTok comes just a day before the ban itself and just days before Trump is scheduled to take the office after his inauguration.
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According to NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump will “most likely” sign that sort of extension that would save TikTok from a ban for the next 90 days. Welker said she spoke to Trump in an interview the day before the TikTok ban but that Trump had not made a decision one way or the other. If he was to grant an extension for the ban, it will likely be announced on Monday, he said.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at,” he told Welker. “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.”
The debate about whether or not TikTok should be banned centered around its ties to China which prompted privacy concerns given the app’s immense popularity. From a legislative level, the conversations about banning TikTok have been ongoing throughout President Joe Biden’s term but officially got underway back in 2020 when Trump was in office for his first term.
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Biden recently stated that the ban would be something Trump would have to act on when he takes office. ByteDance responded in kind by saying that if a decision wasn’t reached, the app would “go dark” on Sunday, so if Trump isn’t making a decision till Monday, TikTok could experience an outage for at least one day.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” a statement shared by TikTok said.
