The incoming national security adviser said Trump’s looking for a deal that would save the app and ‘protect Americans’ data and protect them from influence.’
The incoming administration is confident it can keep TikTok running in the United States while protecting America’s national security, according to Mike Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump’s appointee for national security adviser.
Waltz said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that options to get the social media app back online range from “an outright sale” to “some mechanism of firewalls to make sure that the data is protected here on U.S. soil.”
TikTok’s fate in the United States is hanging in the balance since a ban on the app came into effect on Sunday, the day before the inauguration of Trump, who previously tried to ban the app but is now trying to save it.
Under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, TikTok has been banned in the United States because its ultimate owner, ByteDance Ltd., is subject to the control of the Chinese communist regime, a foreign adversary of the United States, and has not divested from California-based TikTok Inc. before the deadline.
TikTok and some of its users have tried to challenge the law, arguing it violates the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday.
The ban did not violate the petitioners’ First Amendment rights because while the app “offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community, Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,” the judgment states.
The Biden administration has said it’s up to the incoming Trump administration to implement the law, and it did not clarify whether it’s enforcing the law on Sunday.
TikTok has gone dark as of Sunday. Google and Apple also removed the app from their app stores in accordance with the law.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he will issue an executive order on Monday to delay the ban, asking “companies not to let TikTok stay dark.”
By Lily Zhou
