I may give TikTok a 90-day extension - Trump to confirm on Monday

President-elect Trump said he may give TikTok a 90-day extension following its impending ban, which will take effect from tomorrow, January 19.

The measure being probable, Trump said he will confirm his decision on Monday. He said this in an interview with NBC.

The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate…If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday.

Trump’s potential reprieve may bring relief to the many American TikTok content creators, who have been anxious about the ban. For most of them, TikTok has been their source of income and livelihood.

Meanwhile, the Chinese-owned app has announced plans to go dark on Sunday in the US unless President Joe Biden’s administration provides assurance to companies such as Apple and Google that they will not face enforcement actions when a ban takes effect.

In April last year, TikTok had been directed to separate from its China-based parent ByteDance or shut down its US operation, on the basis of the platform associations creating a threat to national security.

Apparently, the platform challenged the law on the grounds of free speech protections violations, hence facing a ban in the US. Due to the ban, most content creators and American users are moving to other social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.

Ironically and notably, they are also moving to Chinese social media platform REDnote. The move is a defiance by the TikTok American user base, creating an interesting connection between the American and Chinese population. It may however pose a challenge to most of the new users, due to the huge gap in user language and censorship styles in both countries.

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