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President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday clarified his stance on TikTok, writing in a post on Truth Social that he’d like to bring the app back online in the U.S. as soon as possible, even if there’s no deal yet for a U.S.-based company to buy the app.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
“Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,” Trump added.
His post came just hours after TikTok went offline for U.S.-based users overnight as a bipartisan law that effectively bans the app went into effect. But just hours after Trump’s post, the app started coming back online for U.S. users.
In a statement, the company said, “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties for providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
They added, “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
The law, signed last year, gave TikTok’s owner, the Chinese-based company ByteDance, several months to sell to a U.S.-based company or else face a ban. Lawmakers said they were concerned about the threats posed to users’ privacy and national security while TikTok remained under the ownership of a Chinese company.
The law also allows the president to “grant a one-time extension of not more than 90 days” before the law kicks in, something Trump told NBC News on Saturday he would “most likely” seek to do.
But the law also says the extension can only be granted “if the President certifies to Congress that … a path to executing a qualified divestiture has been identified” and that “evidence of significant progress toward executing such qualified divestiture has been produced.”
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The law, unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, leaves the interpretation of a “qualified divestiture” up to the president. In his latest post, Trump seemed to lay out what would satisfy that definition for him.
Trump said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” and confirmed that the move would “save TikTok.” NBC News has asked the Trump transition team for clarification on whether the president-elect meant ownership should be held by a U.S.-based company or the U.S. government itself.
Even so, ByteDance has never indicated that TikTok is actually for sale and has never revealed a valuation for the platform. Since the company has been reluctant to sell, a 50% joint venture may be more palatable than losing 100% of the ownership of TikTok.
If a qualified divestiture were to take place, it would give TikTok’s service providers much more peace of mind than simply an extended period of nonenforcement.
Trump’s Truth Social post on Sunday also seemingly contradicted what House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said earlier Sunday when he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he believed Trump’s intention “is that he’s going to try to force along a true divestiture, changing of hands, the ownership” of TikTok before it’s allowed back online in the U.S.
“I think we will enforce the law,” the speaker said.
Also on Sunday, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Trump’s incoming national security adviser, told CNN that Trump’s intention was to communicate with the various stakeholders and “to get it back online and buy him some time to” save the app.
“This is about giving the tech companies, the app stores, the providers, the cloud storage and others the confidence that we are going to work toward some type of deal to not make this go dark. And I think that’s what you’re going to see in the upcoming 24 hours,” Waltz said.
He added: “We’re working, literally real time, working with the various tech companies to get it back online and buy [Trump] some time to, one, save it, but protect Americans’ data and protect Americans from any type of foreign interference.”
Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Savannah Sellers is an anchor and correspondent for NBC News.
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