Joe Biden won’t enforce TikTok ban – leaves decision to Donald Trump | american news

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President Joe Biden will not enforce a ban on social media giant TikTok set to take effect the day before he leaves the White House, a US official has said.

The ban is expected to start on January 19, one day before Mr. Biden leaves the Oval Office and his Republican opponent Donald Trump takes over after winning the November election.

A law signed by Mr. Biden last year, Congress demanded that ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, divest TikTok for national security reasons or face a ban in one of its biggest markets.

But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Biden’s administration would leave the decision to Mr. Trump, who stays was sworn in for his second term as president on Monday.

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Trump has previously promised to keep TikTok available in the US, although his transition team has not said how they intend to achieve that.

However, during his first term as president, the 78-year-old Trump had tried to ban it.

He then joined it during his 2024 presidential campaign, saying he wanted to “save TikTok” as he credited it with helping him win more youth votes.

Efforts to save TikTok have crossed partisan lines, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with Mr. Biden yesterday to advocate for extending the deadline to ban TikTok, a social media platform favored by the younger generation.

“Clearly, more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built a good network of followers,” said Mr. Schumer on the Senate floor.

Democrats had tried to pass legislation on Wednesday that would have extended the deadline, but Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas blocked it.

Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said TikTok has had plenty of time to find a buyer.

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“TikTok is a Chinese communist spy app that is addicting our children, harvesting their data, targeting them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreading communist propaganda,” Cotton said.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute brought by TikTok, ByteDance and users of the app. But the justices appeared to want to uphold the law signed by Mr. Biden.