Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he “most likely” would give TikTok 90 more days to work out a deal that would allow the popular video-sharing platform to avoid a US ban.
Trump said in an NBC News interview that he had not decided what to do but was considering granting TikTok a reprieve after he is sworn into office on Monday. A law that prohibits mobile app stores and internet hosting services from distributing TikTok to US users takes effect on Sunday.
Under the law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year, TikTok’s China-based parent company had nine months to sell the platform’s US operation to an approved buyer. The law allows the sitting president to grant an extension if a sale is in progress.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate,” Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview.
“We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation.
“If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he said.
Meanwhile, TikTok said it will have to “go dark” this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won’t enforce a shutdown of the popular app after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law.
The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed that he could negotiate a solution, and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signaled it won’t enforce the law which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support beginning Sunday, his final full day in office.
“TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, noting that actions to implement the law will fall to the new administration.
TikTok released a statement late Friday saying “statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans.”
“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,” the statement said.
A sale does not appear imminent and, although experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users’ phones once the law takes effect, new users won’t be able to download it and updates won’t be available. That will eventually render the app unworkable, the Justice Department has said in court filings.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
