摘要：Trump is weighing different options to save TikTok, one of which is an executive order that would pause enforcement of a sell-or b

TMTPOST -- U.S. president-elect Donald Trump may step in as a possible ban on TikTok operation in the country.

Credit：Pixabay

Trump is weighing different options to save TikTok, one of which is an executive order that would pause enforcement of a sell-or ban law for 60 to 90 days when he returns to the White House, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

CNN later that day cited sources that Trump is considering a plan hat could delay America’s TikTok ban, giving the incoming administration more time to potentially cut a deal with a U.S. buyer to save the short video application. The report noted Trump's potential executive order would continue to use the app for a certain period of time as the administration sorts out who could potentially buy it.

Trump didn’t respond to these reports, but his nominee for national security advisor, Mike Waltz the same day told Fox News the president-elect will “faind a way” to preserve TikTok once he takes office. Waltz said Trump intends to take actions to maintain access to TikTok while protecting users’ data.

“TikTok itself is a fantastic platform,” Waltz said. “I wish I could have it on my phone. The algorithm is amazing. We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data. And that’s the deal that will be in front of us.”

Trump’s reported possible executive order to suspend Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the “Act”) came as a deadline of TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd’s sales looms.

The Act, which went into effect in April 2024, gives ByteDance 270 days to divest its U.S. assets including TikTok, otherwise the Chinese tech giant would face a ban on its app being available in U.S. app stores or on U.S. web hosting services. It also grants the White House the authority to prolong this deadline by another 90 days if the president deems that progress has been made towards a sale.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on December 6 ruled against TikTok’s request for pause of the ban that set a deadline of January 19 for a sale of ByteDance. TikTok the same day requested the Supreme Court to review the recent ruling of an appeals court that upheld an act threatening a U.S. ban.

Hearing the over two-hour oral arguments in Washington on Friday, most of the Supreme court appeared likely to uphold the Act, citing many of the justices in the arguments view the law not as one that primarily implicates the First Amendment but rather as an effort to regulate the potential foreign control of an app used by 170 million Americans.

If the Surpreme Court upholds the Act, it is Trump that could act as TikTok’s last-resort for survival. Trump last month sent one of his most clearest and the strongest signals to date that he opposes any TikTok ban in U.S. "We did go on TikTok and we had a great response with billions of views," Trump told a crowd of supporters on December 22. Trump added, "They brought me a chart ... and as I looked at it, I said, maybe we got to keep this sucker around for a little while."

In a 25-page amicus brief released on December 27, John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer who is also the president-elect’s pick for U.S. solicitor general, has request the Supreme Court to delay the possible TikTok ban. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute,” wrote Sauer.“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case, thus permitting President Trump’s incoming Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”

Chinese officials are weighing a potential option to sell TikTok’s U.S. operation to Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk should ByteDance will not succeed in fending off an impending ban, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. It noted the Chinese government is interested in a potential high-profile with Musk for the billionaire, as one of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s closest allies, is deemed to be a key role in the ultimate fate of TikTok. One scenario that has been debated by Beijing is that Musk’s social media X, formerly Twitter, would take control of TikTok operation in the United States and run the businesses together.

来源：钛媒体