The White House has responded to a statement from TikTok, labeling it as a 'stunt' and dismissing the need for immediate action before the transition to the new administration. The statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized that the implementation of the law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to sell the app to American ownership would be handled by the incoming administration.
President Joe Biden signed a law in April mandating ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19. However, with no significant progress made towards this requirement, the Biden administration has indicated that the decision on enforcing a potential ban will be deferred to the next administration due to the timing of the deadline falling on a federal holiday weekend.
Despite calls from Democratic lawmakers to delay the enforcement of the law, White House officials maintain that the president lacks the authority to do so. Additionally, it has been clarified that there will be no fines imposed by the Biden administration for TikTok's continued operation during this interim period, including any penalties on service providers like Apple and Google that facilitate access to the app.
