Biden ‘exploring options’ to keep TikTok running amid looming ban: report
A behind-the-scenes 11th-hour White House effort is underway to prevent TikTok from going dark on Americans’ phones as early as Sunday, according to a new report.
President Joe Biden’s administration is said to be “exploring options” on ways to see through the ban ordered by lawmakers in a way that does not result in the widely popular app downloaded by millions of U.S. users going down on Jan. 19.
“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” an administration official said, according to NBC News.
Any such move by Biden to rescue TikTok by the Jan. 19 deadline would mean that outrage – particularly among younger generations – “would not define his last full day in office, and it would defer the issue to Donald Trump, who is inaugurated on Monday,” NBC News reported.
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The possible delay by Biden administration officials comes as Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that the president-elect “is ready to intervene to preserve access to the Chinese-owned video app in the American marketplace,” according to the report.
“Taken together, the moves represent parallel efforts by the rival presidents to execute an end run around Congress and the Supreme Court, which is teed up to issue a ruling on the ban at any time,” the network said.
However, the White House official stressed they would enforce the ban, if it is upheld.
“We are not considering deferring enforcement,” the official said, as reported by NBC News. “Statutorily, we don’t believe we have the authority to do that.”
Trump has vowed to sign an executive order canceling the law after the Supreme Court appeared unwilling to strike down the law passed by Congress last year forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell off the platform or face a U.S. ban.