US President Joe Biden’s administration does not plan to force TikTok to shut its doors on Sunday, according to an administration official that spoke to ABC News in the US.
TikTok, however, could still shut itself down on Sunday (Monday Australia time).
“Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement,” a White House official told ABC News in a statement.
It’s important to note here that TikTok is not necessarily required to turn itself off in the US on 19 January. Rather, it’s the likes of Apple’s AppStore, Google’s Play Store and internet hosting companies that will get hit if they keep providing their services to TikTok.
The law gives the Justice Department the power to pursue fines of up to $5,000 per user, an enormous potential liability given the app’s 170 million American users.
Even if Biden or Trump say they won’t enforce the ban, tech companies will still be liable as long as TikTok is owned by ByteDance. So far, Apple, Google and others have not made their positions clear.
However, both Biden and Trump have limited to options to postpone the ban. The President can grant a one-time delay to the ban for up to 90 days if TikTok shows it’s on a “path to executing” a sale from its Chinese owners, as well as “evidence of significant progress” towards a sale and that progress must be sealed with “relevant binding legal agreements”.
