By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – TikTok’s fortunes took a positive turn on Thursday as a growing number of U.S. officials said its Chinese owner should be given more time to sell the app and prevent it from being banned before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office. White House. .
Trump’s incoming national security adviser said the new Republican administration will keep the social media app used by 170 million Americans alive in the United States if there is a workable deal, and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer urged President Joe Biden to extend an imminent deadline for 90 days to close it on Sunday.
A law passed in April forces TikTok owner ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets by Sunday to a non-Chinese buyer, or be banned on national security grounds.
“We will implement measures to prevent TikTok from disappearing,” U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz told Fox News, pointing to a provision in the law that allows for a 90-day extension if there is “significant progress” toward a divestment.
“Essentially, that gives President Trump time to keep TikTok running,” said Waltz, who was picked by Trump as his national security adviser.
The US Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on Sunday in the absence of a divestment, overturn the law or suspend it to give the justices more time to make a decision.
The court said it could issue rulings on Friday, but as usual, did not indicate which case or cases would be decided.
Trump once supported banning the app, but changed his stance last year. His move came amid growing signs of support for his presidential campaign among technology executives and proposals from Republican donor Jeff Yass, who owns a large stake in ByteDance.
In a sign of strengthening ties between Trump and TikTok, the video app’s CEO Shou Zi Chew will attend the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 and will sit on the dais among other high-profile guests, they told Reuters two people familiar with the matter. .
BIPARTISAN CHANGE
“It is clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, adding that Democrats tried to pass a bill expanding the deadline to find a solution is 270 days.
“I will work with the Trump administration and both parties to keep TikTok alive while protecting our national security,” he added.
The comments from Schumer, who was a strong supporter of the law to force a sale, are a sign of growing concern among prominent Democrats about the potential impact and political consequences of shutting down TikTok.
He New York Times (NYSE:) reported that Trump is considering an executive order that would seek to allow TikTok to continue operating despite a pending legal ban until new owners are found. It was not immediately clear whether Trump has the authority to do so given the legal divestment requirements imposed by Congress.
TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition, Karoline Leavitt, said: “President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to save TikTok, and there is no better negotiator than Donald Trump.”
‘TALK ABOUT A GREAT GAME’
Still, several Republicans and Democrats remain concerned about Chinese ownership of the app, worried that the Chinese government could use it as a tool to collect data on American citizens and spread propaganda to the public.
“Trump talks a lot about China and wanted to ban TikTok, just as many Republicans voted for,” Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote on social media platform TikTok CEO will sit next to you at your inauguration even though TikTok is linked to the CCP and is a threat to our national security. What message does this send?
The prospect of a TikTok ban has already caused some users to look for alternatives, with Chinese social media app RedNote gaining nearly 3 million American users in one day earlier this week, according to analytics firm Similarweb (NYSE:) .
Reuters reported that TikTok plans to shut down operations of its social media app in the United States on Sunday, barring a last-minute reprieve, according to people familiar with the matter.
A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that Biden has no plans to intervene to block a ban in his final days in office if the US Supreme Court does not act. The official added that Biden cannot legally intervene without a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.
Privately held ByteDance is approximately 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock (NYSE 🙂 and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the United States.