The American president-elect, Donald Trump, stated this Saturday that TikTok will ‘probably’ be granted a 90-day extension to avoid its ban in the United States.
“I think that would certainly be an option to consider. The 90-day extension is something that will probably be done, because it is appropriate. We have to analyze it carefully. It is a very important situation,” he said in a telephone interview. with NBC News hours before his inauguration on Sunday.
The US Supreme Court on Friday gave the green light to a law that forces TikTok to suspend its operations in the country before January 19 for not having separated from its parent companythe Chinese ByteDance.
In principle, it would be up to the outgoing president, Joe Biden, to take measures that day to ensure that the social network stops operating for reasons of national security, but The White House has decided to leave that responsibility in the hands of Trump.
Longer negotiation time
The 90-day extension would give ByteDance time to sell the platform to a non-Chinese buyer. That extension is explicitly allowed by a bipartisan law last year under specific conditions.
Likewise, Donald Trump indicated on NBC News that if his Administration opts for this new deadline he will “probably” announce it on Monday, the day on which, among others, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Chew, is scheduled to attend the inauguration.
