President Joe Biden’s administration is considering ways to keep TikTok available in the U.S. if a ban that’s scheduled to go into effect on Sunday proceeds, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” an administration official said, adding that officials are “exploring options” for how to implement the law so that TikTok does not go dark on Sunday.
If the administration moves forward with any such plan, it would mean that the popular app going down would not define his last full day in office, and it would defer the issue to Donald Trump, who is inaugurated on Monday.
At the same time, Mike Waltz, the incoming national security adviser for Trump, told Fox News Wednesday that the president-elect is ready to intervene to preserve access to the Chinese-owned video app in the American marketplace. And Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, refused to commit to enforcing the ban when asked about it during her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.
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.
Still, a White House official insisted that not enforcing the ban, if it is upheld, is not an option.
“We are not considering deferring enforcement,” the official said. “Statutorily, we don’t believe we have the authority to do that.”
Biden and Trump’s positions are reversals from their one-time support for banning the app.
The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment on the plan.
TikTok is considering its options, that the app goes dark on Sunday, though it could also allow the app to remain active but without future updates and bug fixes.
The law in question required ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, to divest from the company and find an outside buyer to take over within nine months. That window closes Sunday. The law also provided the president authority to grant a one-time 90-day extension if “” has been made toward that divestment.
The measure was enacted in the name of national security, as lawmakers believed Americans’ data was at risk of being compromised by China, or that China could influence Americans through controlling content on TikTok. TikTok — which has long said those concerns are meritless — and some of its users sued to block the law, challenging it from a First Amendment standpoint.
Without a sale, a reprieve for TikTok would mean that those national security concerns would, at least for now, remain unresolved.
But just days ahead of the potential ban, throngs of American TikTok users have downloaded other Chinese alternatives that pose similar security issues.
Trump, who tried and failed to implement a ban during his first term, vowed on the campaign trail last year to “save TikTok.” Biden signed the ban into law as part of a $95 billion measure providing aid to Ukraine and Israel in April. But now his White House is looking to take the teeth out of the law.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a longtime Biden ally, is among a small set of lawmakers who have appealed to the White House and the Supreme Court to stop the ban.
“I’m hopeful that President Biden will listen to the millions of voices who don’t want the lights to go out on this app,” Khanna said. “He has the power to extend the timeline to try to have a solution that prevents the app from shutting down.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also said that he has relayed his concerns about the ban to White House officials and asked them to delay it.
He said they replied that they “would take it under consideration” but didn’t give a clear answer of what would happen.
Late last month, Trump with the Supreme Court urging it to hold off on implementing that part of the law, so that the incoming president could “pursue a negotiated resolution” to prevent a TikTok shutdown. In that brief, Trump’s attorney John Sauer argued that the president-elect “received a powerful electoral mandate from American voters to protect the free-speech rights of all Americans — including the 170 million Americans who use TikTok.”
Days later, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to : “Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?”
He attached a graphic showing his broad reach on the short-form video app, which claims 170 million U.S. users.
Last week, Supreme Court justices did not appear convinced by TikTok’s free speech arguments, though it could decide to temporarily block the law while still ruling against the social media company.
Chief Justice John Roberts pointed to Congress finding that TikTok’s parent company is subject to Chinese laws requiring it to assist in intelligence gathering.
“So are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” he asked.
In addressing the free speech concerns, Roberts said that “Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok.”
The law is “not saying TikTok has to stop,” he added. “They’re saying China has to stop controlling TikTok.”
While TikTok’s Asia-headquarters are located in Singapore, its parent company ByteDance resides in Beijing.
Some congressional Republicans who voted for the TikTok law said they expect Trump to step in and negotiate a sale to U.S. interests once he takes office.
“They have to divest by law, so Trump could play an effective role by finding a buyer … He fancies himself as a top negotiator,” said Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, a China hawk who was chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee when Congress passed the legislation last year. “Otherwise, I guess it shuts down unless he can find a way to divest it.”
“A lot of these influencers rely on TikTok,” he continued. “They don’t want to switch over, but ByteDance is controlled out of Beijing. It’s just not a threat to Congress but to our children.”
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said there is only one path for TikTok if it wants to continue operating in the U.S.: divestiture.
“Congress has already passed the bill,” he said. “What I’m hoping for is the owners of TikTok come forward and say, ‘We will never share Americans’ data with the Communist Party of China and here’s how that will be enforced: divesting from the parent company.”
