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US President-elect Donald Trump said the decision on the future of the TikTok app in the United States will be up to him
White House said TikTok should remain available to Americans | Representative Image
The White House stated on Friday that TikTok should remain accessible to Americans, but the timing of the Supreme Court’s ruling on a law banning the app places the responsibility on the Trump administration.
The US Supreme Court refused to rescue TikTok on Friday from a law that required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or banned on Sunday in the United States on national security grounds — a major blow to a platform used by nearly half of all Americans.
“TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,” the White House said in a statement.
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”
US Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgement of free speech. The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users.
Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump said the decision on the future of the TikTok app will be up to him, but he did not provide any detail about what steps he would take.
“It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do,” Trump said in an interview with CNN. “Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”
TikTok CEO Reacts To Court Order
TikTok is relying on Donald Trump’s support to keep the Chinese-owned video app legal in the United States.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a U.S. law that could potentially ban the app, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew shared a video message on the platform, expressing gratitude to President-elect Trump for his efforts to seek a workable solution.
“On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” Chew said. “This is a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”
Chew continued, “We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform — one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.” He closed the message by saying, “More to come.”
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