Trump administration considering 90-day extension for TikTok

17/1/2025 6:15

U.S. President-elect

Donald Trump's incoming national security adviser said on

Thursday the new administration will keep TikTok alive in the

United States if there is a viable deal.



"We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going

dark," U.S. Representative Mike Waltz told Fox News. He noted

that the law gives authority for a 90-day extension for the

app's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to complete a divestiture. This

is the case, said Waltz, "as long as a viable deal is on the

table." He added: "Essentially that buys President Trump time to

keep TikTok going."



TikTok could not immediately be reached for comment.



A spokesperson for the Trump transition, Karoline Leavitt,

said, "President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to

save TikTok, and there's no better deal maker than Donald

Trump."

Reuters reported that TikTok plans to shut U.S. operations of

its social media app used by 170 million Americans on Sunday,

when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute

reprieve, according to people familiar with the matter.

A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that President

Joe Biden has no plans to intervene to block a ban in his final

days in office if the U.S. Supreme Court fails to act. The

official added that Biden is legally unable to intervene absent

a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.

The law signed in April mandates a ban on new TikTok downloads

on Apple or Google app stores if ByteDance

fails to divest the site.



Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still

be able to use the app, but the law also bars U.S. companies

from providing services to enable the distribution, maintenance,

or updating of it once any ban begins.



The president can issue a one-time, 90-day delay to the ban

if he certifies to Congress there has been evidence of

significant progress and there are binding legal agreements in

place to allow a complete divestiture in three months.

Separately, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the U.S.

presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 and sit among high-profile

guests invited by Trump, a source told Reuters.



Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy

and Commerce Committee, criticized the decision to invite Chew

on social media platform X.



"Trump talks a big game on China & wanted to ban TikTok—just

like many Republicans voted to do," Pallone said. "But now he’s

inviting TikTok's CEO to sit beside him at his inauguration even

though TikTok is linked to the CCP & is a threat to our national

security. What message does this send?"



The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to

uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on Sunday, overturn

the law, or pause the law to give the court more time to make a

decision.



Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional

investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while

its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000

employees in the United States.