Washington [US], January 17: US President-elect Donald Trump's incoming national security adviser said on January 16 that the new administration would keep TikTok operating in the US if a deal was reached.
Short-video sharing app TikTok will be banned on January 19, a day before President-elect Trump is inaugurated, under a law requiring TikTok to find a non-Chinese owner due to US national security concerns, Reuters reported.
"We will take measures to prevent TikTok from being shut down," US Congressman Mike Waltz told Fox News, pointing to a provision in the law that allows a 90-day extension if there is "significant progress" toward divestment.
"That essentially gives President Trump more time to keep TikTok going," said Waltz, who was picked by Trump to be his national security adviser.
The US Supreme Court is deciding whether to uphold the law and allow TikTok to be banned on January 19 without divestment, overturning or pausing the law to give the justices more time to decide.
The US Supreme Court announced that it could issue rulings on January 17 (US time), but as usual, did not specify which cases would be decided.
US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on January 16 that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, should be given more time, even though he said the app "has too many security risks to ignore."
The new remarks by Mr. Schumer, who has strongly supported legislation passed in April 2024 to force ByteDance to sell TikTok, are a sign of growing concern among Democrats about the potential impact and political consequences of shutting down TikTok in the United States.
An aide to Senator Schumer said Mr. Schumer spoke with US President Joe Biden and urged the leader to extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok's US assets by 90 days and prevent a ban on the app, which has 170 million users in the US.
Mr Trump had supported a ban on TikTok but changed his stance last year, a shift that came amid growing support from tech executives for his presidential campaign and overtures from Republican donor Jeff Yass, who owns a large part of ByteDance.
Mr. Trump has also leveraged TikTok throughout the campaign as a way to win support from young voters in the 2024 US presidential election .
The New York Times reported on January 16 that Trump is considering an executive order that would allow TikTok to continue operating despite a pending legal ban until a new owner is found. It is unclear whether Trump has the authority to do so given the legal divestment requirements imposed by Congress.
"President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to save TikTok, and there is no better businessman than Donald Trump," said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump's transition team.
In a sign of warmer relations between Mr Trump and TikTok, the app's chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, will attend Mr Trump's inauguration on January 20 and sit on the podium alongside other high-profile invitees, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
However, some members of both the Republican and Democratic parties remain concerned about TikTok's Chinese ownership, fearing that Beijing could use the app as a tool to collect data on US citizens and spread propaganda to the American public, according to Reuters.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper