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Donald Trump has said he will “probably” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban, which will take effect on Sunday, ahead of his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.
Trump told NBC News that an announcement on the matter would likely come on Monday when he takes office.
It comes after the social media platform warned it would “go dark” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration ensured the ban would not be enforced.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law banning the app in the US unless China-based parent company ByteDance sells the platform by January 19. ByteDance has declined to seek a buyer.
TikTok said late Friday that the White House and the Justice Department “failed to provide the necessary clarity and certainty to service providers who are critical to maintaining TikTok’s availability.”
But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Saturday that TikTok’s warning that it was about to go dark was “a sham.”
“We don’t see any reason why TikTok or any other company should take office in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office,” he said.
“We’ve made our position clear and straightforward: Actions to implement this law will be left to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should be concerned about them.”
Trump said on Friday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok, among other things.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to be among the tech executives at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
US national security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s data collection to track US federal workers and contractors, which TikTok has denied.
On Friday, China’s embassy in Washington DC accused the US of unfairly cracking down on TikTok: “China will take all necessary measures to firmly protect its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.
The platform is popular among the 170 million users it claims to have in the US, some of whom have lobbied members of Congress against the ban. It has also been a valuable tool for American political campaigns to reach younger voters.
Trump backed the ban on TikTok, but has recently claimed a “warm spot” for the app, touting the billions of views his videos attracted on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.
Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app would be removed from app stores and web hosting services in the coming days.
Content creators and small businesses that depend on the app for income told the BBC their lives would change beyond measure if it were to shut down.
“Indirectly, TikTok was the majority of my income because all the brands want to promote their stuff on the app,” Nicole Bloomgarden, a fashion designer and artist who uses TikTok, told the BBC.
TikTok did not respond to the BBC about what it means to “go dark” in the US.
One possible outcome is what happened in India when the platform fell against the authorities there.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shut down dozens of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, after a deadly clash with Chinese forces in 2020 over contested border land.
Two weeks later, India’s 200 million TikTok users were unable to log in after Indian internet providers ordered them to block access to the app.
App stores run by Google and Apple also stopped offering TikTok. The app did not legally challenge India’s ban.
Following the ban, competing short-form platforms have largely filled the void with TikTok copycats such as Meta-owned Instagram Reels and Google-owned YouTube Shorts.
Meta is seen as the clear winner of the TikTok ban in India.
