Trump team: TikTok ban not expected to take effect over weekend

A US law requiring the Chinese company ByteDance to block TikTok unless it divestes the popular short video app is unlikely to take effect on time, in part because the deadline falls on a long weekend and President-elect Trump's incoming administration has promised to give it more time.

Under the ban law, ByteDance was to shut down TikTok on Sunday unless it found a buyer for the app. However, if serious takeover talks are underway, the president can approve a 90-day extension of the deadline. Two Biden administration officials said that while there are no eligible deals in the works, the deadline falls on Sunday and Monday is a public holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so enforcement of the law is effectively left to the next administration. That opens the door for Trump to extend the deadline.

Two Biden administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, viewed the situation as a recognition of the realities of law enforcement, saying the current administration has not changed its position that TikTok should be sold to an American buyer. But they note that the timing of the statutory deadline effectively means it will be up to the Trump administration to enforce it. One of the officials said TikTok users should not worry about the app being shut down on Sunday.

Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump's national security adviser, said the new administration intended to find a way to extend the deadline.

"We're going to take steps to keep TikTok from going offline," Woz said Thursday morning on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." The blocking law, he added, "allows for an extension as long as there is a viable deal on the table."

"This buys President Trump time to keep TikTok open," said Woz, who voted for the ban when he was in the House last year.

A person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified publicly, said that TikTok's chief executive, Mr. Zhou, plans to attend Mr. Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

There are also efforts on Capitol Hill to push back the deadline. Senators including Edward Markey, Ron Wyden and Cory Booker proposed a bill this week that would give ByteDance an additional 270 days to reach a deal.

Under a law signed by President Joe Biden last April, if TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is unable to spin off its U.S. operations, TikTok will be banned from Apple and Google's app stores and no new TikTok downloads can take place.

In theory, users who have downloaded TikTok can still use the app, but the law also prohibits U.S. companies from providing services to distribute, maintain and update TikTok starting Sunday. When the ban goes into effect, TikTok users will see a message when they open the app directing them to a website with content about the ban, people familiar with the matter said.

Meanwhile, TikTok users in the United States are flocking to Xiaohongshu, another Chinese social media app. According to Hennessey Digital, a digital marketing agency based in California, downloads of the Little Red Book in the United States may have passed 2 million in just three days.