President Joe Biden will not enforce a ban on social media giant TikTok which is due to take effect the day before he leaves the White House, a US official has said.
The ban is supposed start on 19 January, a day before Mr Biden leaves the Oval Office and his Republican opponent Donald Trump takes over after winning in November’s election.
A law signed by Mr Biden last year saw Congress requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to divest TikTok on national security grounds or face a ban in one of its biggest markets.
But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr Biden’s administration was going to leave the decision to Mr Trump, who will be sworn in for his second presidential term on Monday.
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Mr Trump has previously pledged to keep TikTok available in the US though his transition team has not said how they intend to accomplish that.
During his first presidential term, however, 78-year-old Mr Trump had sought to ban it.
He then joined it during his 2024 presidential campaign and said he would “save TikTok” as he credited it with helping him win more youth votes.
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Efforts to save TikTok have crossed partisan lines, with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer saying he spoke with Mr Biden yesterday to advocate for extending the deadline to ban TikTok, a social media platform favoured by the younger generation.
“It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” Mr Schumer said on the Senate floor.
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Democrats had tried on Wednesday to pass legislation that would have extended the deadline, but Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas blocked it.
Mr Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said TikTok has had ample time to find a buyer.
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“TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda,” Mr Cotton said.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute brought by TikTok, ByteDance, and users of the app. But justices seemed likely to uphold the law signed by Mr Biden.
