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President-elect Donald Trump said he will issue an executive order on Monday ensuring that companies that helped TikTok stay in service will not be held liable for violating the ban passed by Congress.
Tik Tok The service was suspended this weekend ahead of a Sunday deadline that required ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the app, to sell the video app to avoid a ban on app stores that allow downloads.
“I ask companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump said on its Social Truth platform on Sunday.
“I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the ban goes into effect, so we can reach an agreement to protect our national security,” the president-elect said.
Trump added that his order would ensure that companies that helped TikTok stay in service would face “no liability.”
Earlier Sunday, Mike Waltz, a Florida lawmaker who will become national security adviser when Trump is inaugurated on Monday, told CNN that the president-elect would consider allowing Chinese ownership to continue but with “firewalls” to ensure app data “ “Protected here on American soil.”
Trump said in his post on Truth Social that he would like the United States to have “50% ownership in a joint venture.”
“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say ‘Such and suchTrump said. “Without US approval, there would be no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps trillions.”
“My initial idea was a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners where the US would get 50% ownership in a joint venture created between the US and any purchase we chose.”
US lawmakers and security officials believe the Chinese government could use TikTok to obtain Americans' personal information that would facilitate espionage. TikTok denies that China has any control over the app.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the ban, which took effect on Sunday. Trump said on Saturday that he would “probably” extend the deadline for selling TikTok, which has been downloaded by 170 million Americans, by 90 days.
But some Republican lawmakers, including Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts, said in a statement that “there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’.”
One of the people involved in drafting the TikTok law said there was no provision in the legislation for an extension once the January 19 deadline passes.
The law allows a 90-day extension if certain conditions are met — including evidence of “significant progress” toward divestment and “binding agreements” to enable implementation — but only if it comes before the deadline.
In a separate interview with CBS Television, Waltz said Trump needs time to evaluate potential deals to save the app.
He said: “What we need between now and Monday is to give the president some time to evaluate these deals, and if things go wrong, that will obviously be a very big problem.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told NBC that he believed that when Trump said “save TikTok,” the president-elect was referring to ways to “try to force real divestment.”
In his first term, Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok from operating in the United States, but it was blocked by the courts. His administration also tried to design a deal that would ensure China would not have access to the data. China's national security laws require Chinese companies to hand over data when ordered to do so by the government.
Last year, Trump expressed his opposition to the withdrawal or ban law passed by Congress, saying that it would help Facebook, which he banned from using its platform for two years. Facebook competes with TikTok through its Instagram app.
