The White House has said a warning by TikTok it will shut down in the US on Sunday unless tech firms get assurances they will not be punished for violating a law that bans the app is a “stunt”.
Late on Friday, the social media platform said it needed a commitment from the outgoing Biden administration that companies such as Apple and Google will not face prosecution for ignoring the looming ban.
“It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban.
TikTok said it would be forced to “go dark” in the US on Sunday because the White House and the Department of Justice had “failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability”.
But the White House press secretary said on Saturday: “We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”
It follows a Supreme Court ruling on Friday morning that upheld a law banning the app in the US unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by Sunday.
ByteDance has repeatedly said it will not seek a buyer for the platform.
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said: “The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate.
“If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”
The president-elect said on Friday he had just spoken to China’s President Xi Jinping and discussed TikTok, among other issues.
TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to be among tech executives at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
US national security officials have warned that Chinese spies could use the app’s data harvesting to track American federal employees and contractors, which TikTok has denied.
Yet the platform is wildly popular among the 170 million users it says it has in the US, some of whom have been lobbying members of Congress against the ban. It has also been a valuable tool for American political campaigns to reach younger voters.
Trump previously backed a TikTok ban, but has more recently professed a “warm spot” for the app, touting the billions of views he says his videos attracted on the platform during last year’s presidential campaign.
Under the law passed last April, the US version of the app would be removed from app stores and web-hosting services in the coming days.
Content creators dependent on the app for revenue told the BBC, if it shuts down in the US their lives would change inordinately without the platform.
“Indirectly, TikTok was the majority of my income because all brands want their stuff to be promoted on the app,” Nicole Bloomgarden, a fashion designer and artist who uses TikTok, told the BBC.
