US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser said on Thursday that the new administration will keep TikTok alive in the United States if there is a viable deal.“We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” US Representative Mike Waltz told Fox News.He noted that the law gives authority for a 90-day extension for the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to complete a divestiture.This is the case, said Waltz, “as long as a viable deal is on the table. Essentially that buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going”.TikTok is used by more than 170mn Americans monthly.The New York Times reported on Thursday that Trump is considering an executive order that would seek to allow TikTok to continue operating despite a pending legal ban until new owners are found.It was not immediately clear if Trump has the authority to do so given the legal divestiture requirements imposed by Congress.A group of U.S. lawmakers is also pushing for a 270-day extension as well, warning that a ban could hurt Americans who make a living from using TikTok.TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.A spokesperson for the Trump transition, Karoline Leavitt, said: “President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to save TikTok, and there’s no better deal maker than Donald Trump.”Reuters reported that TikTok plans to shut US operations of its social media app on Sunday, when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, according to people familiar with the matter.A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that President Joe Biden has no plans to intervene to block a ban in his final days in office if the US Supreme Court fails to act.The official added that Biden is legally unable to intervene absent a credible plan from ByteDance to divest TikTok.The law signed in April mandates a ban on new TikTok downloads on Apple or Google app stores if ByteDance fails to divest the site.Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still be able to use the app, but the law also bars US companies from providing services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of it once any ban begins.The president can issue a one-time, 90-day delay to the ban if he certifies to Congress there has been evidence of significant progress and there are binding legal agreements in place to allow a complete divestiture in three months.
