Trump said he would grant Tik Tok a 90-day ban

On the eve of his inauguration as the 47th US president on Sunday, Donald Trump said he would grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban.

Trump told NBC News that an announcement on the matter would likely come after he takes office on Monday.

It comes after the social media platform warned it would “go dark” on Sunday unless the Biden administration gives assurances that the ban will not be implemented.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning the app in the US until its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by January 19. ByteDance declined to seek a buyer.

TikTok said late on Friday that the White House and the Justice Department “failed to provide the necessary transparency and assurance to service providers necessary to protect the existence of TikTok.”

But White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said on Saturday that TikTok’s warning that it was about to go dark was a “trigger”.

We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday.

“We have made our position very clear and clear: the steps to implement this law will be left to the next administration. Therefore, TikTok and other companies should take any risk against them.”

Trump said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and discussed TikTok and other issues.

TikTok CEO Xu Zichew is expected to be among the tech executives at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

US national security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s data collection to track US federal employees and contractors, which TikTok has denied.

On Friday, the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC accused the US of unfairly cracking down on TikTok: “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely protect its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.

The platform is most popular among its 170 million users in the US, some of whom have been lobbying members of Congress against the ban. It was also an important tool for American political campaigns to reach younger voters.

Trump has previously supported banning TikTok, but recently said he has a “warm spot” for the app, given the billions of views its videos drew on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.

The US version of the app will be removed from app stores and web hosting services in the coming days, according to a law passed last April.

Content creators who depend on the app’s revenue told the BBC their lives would change too much if it were to be shut down in the US.

“Indirectly, Tik Tok was the majority of my income because all the brands wanted their items advertised on the app,” Nicole Bluegarden, a fashion designer and artist who uses Tik Tok, told the BBC.

TikTok did not respond to the BBC’s questions about what it means to “go dark” in the US.

But one possible outcome is what happened in India when the application fell on the authorities there.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi They moved to shut down dozens of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, after deadly clashes with Chinese forces in disputed border areas in 2020.

Two weeks later, India’s 200 million TikTok users were unable to log in after Indian internet service providers were instructed to block access to the app.

App stores run by Google and Apple have also stopped offering TikTok. The app has not legally challenged India’s ban.

Since the ban, competing short-form platforms have largely filled the gap with Tik Tok copies of Meta-owned Instagram Reels and Google-owned YouTube Shorts.

Metha is widely seen as a net winner from India’s TikTok ban.