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Donald Trump has said it is “possible” that he will give TikTok 90 days to suspend the ban, which is due to take place on Sunday, on the eve of his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States.
Trump told NBC News that an announcement on the matter could come as soon as Monday after he takes office.
It comes after the TV platform warned that it would “go black” on Sunday unless the outgoing Biden administration confirmed that the ban would not be implemented.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ban on the app in the US unless its Chinese 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 Department of Justice “failed to provide the necessary information and assurances to supporters who are essential to TikTok’s existence”.
But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Saturday that TikTok’s impending warning was “stumbling”.
“We don’t see any reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the next few days before Trump takes office on Monday,” he said.
“We have made it clear and straightforward: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies must participate.”
Trump said on Friday he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok, among other things.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to be one of the tech executives at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
US security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s harvest to track American workers and contractors, which TikTok has denied.
On Friday, the Chinese ambassador in Washington DC criticized the US for suppressing TikTok: “China will do everything necessary to protect its rights and interests,” he said.
The platform is very popular among the 170 million users it says it has in the US, some of whom have been lobbying members of Congress to overturn the ban. It has also become an important tool in American politics to reach young voters.
Trump has previously supported the ban on TikTok, but recently said it is a “hot spot” for the app, pointing to the billions of views his videos reportedly attracted on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.
Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app will be removed from app stores and web hosting services in the coming days.
Developers and small businesses who rely on the program for funding have told the BBC that their lives would be irreversibly changed if it were to be shut down.
“Indirectly, TikTok was the biggest source of income for me because all the brands wanted their products promoted on the app,” Nicole Bloomgarden, a fashion designer and artist who uses TikTok, told the BBC.
TikTok did not respond to the BBC’s question about what it means to be “black” in the US.
One possible outcome is what happened in India when the platform was frowned upon by the authorities there.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved to block most Chinese apps, including TikTok, in 2020 after a deadly clash with Chinese troops along the disputed border.
Two weeks later, India’s 200 million TikTok users were no longer able to log in after India’s internet service provider was ordered to ban the app.
App stores run by Google and Apple also stopped offering TikTok. The program has not officially challenged India’s ban.
Since the ban, short platforms from competitors have crowded out TikTok copycats Meta-owned Instagram Reels and Google-owned YouTube Shorts.
Meta is widely seen as the winner of TikTok’s bans in India.
