The outgoing Joe Biden administration is “exploring options” to make sure that TikTok remains available in the U.S. even if Sunday’s ban moves forward, three people familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” one official said, telling the network that the administration is looking at ways to implement the law without the app going offline.
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Bruce Reed has been fielding calls from those pushing the president to stop a ban from going into effect, two people familiar told NBC.
If the administration stops the ban, the issue would be adjudicated by the incoming administration, which takes the reins following Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
On Wednesday, incoming Trump National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News that Trump is ready to step in to stop the ban. Similarly, Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi did not commit to enforcing the ban during her Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing.
But a White House official told NBC that it’s not an option to not enforce the ban if it’s upheld by the Supreme Court.
“We are not considering deferring enforcement,” they said. “Statutorily, we don’t believe we have the authority to do that.”
Both Biden and Trump previously supported banning TikTok. Trump said on the campaign trail last year that he would “save TkTok” after trying to ban it during his first term.
Meanwhile, the app is looking at its options, including the possibility of being shut down on Sunday, but it could also allow the app to remain on the marketplace without any further updates.
Recently passed legislation - and signed by Biden - required ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok based in China, to divest from the app. It also required the company to find a new owner to buy the app within nine months, a period which ends Sunday. The legislation also allowed the president to hand the company a 90-day extension if progress had been made to divest from TikTok.
While the app’s headquarters is in Singapore, ByteDance is located in Beijing.
The legislation was put in place because of national security concerns as lawmakers believed that the data of U.S. users was at risk of being compromised by China. There are also concerns that China may attempt to influence American public opinion by controlling content on the app. TikTok has repeatedly argued that there’s nothing to support such claims. Both the app and some users have sued to block the legislation and the Supreme Court is considering the case.
“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,” Biden ally and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told NBC. “He has the power to extend the timeline to try to have a solution that prevents the app from shutting down.”
In December, Trump filed a brief pushing the Supreme Court not to implement the TikTok ban to allow the new president to “pursue a negotiated resolution” to avoid a shutdown.
Trump “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,” the brief stated.
