Trump Could Reportedly Reverse TikTok Ban Via Executive Order

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering a plan to halt a ban on TikTok.

Under the plan, the new president — after taking office next week — would issue an executive order that would suspend the ban on the popular video app, according to reports from CNN and the Washington Post Wednesday (Jan. 15) evening.

The order would let the 170 million Americans who use TikTok stay on the platform while the administration works out a plan for a possible buyer, the CNN report said.

The ban, signed into law last year, is based around national security concerns related to TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance. It gives that company until Jan. 19 — the day before Trump will be sworn in — to divest itself of TikTok. If TikTok isn’t sold, the law requires Apple and Google to stop supporting the app via their platforms.

The Washington Post report quotes Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former Justice Department advisor, who said that executive orders are “not magical documents” that could stop the ban.

“TikTok will still be banned and it will be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them,” he said. “But it will make the president’s intention not to enforce the law that much more official.”

While Trump supported the ban as president, he has since said he wants to “save TikTok,” and last month asked the Supreme Court to stay the law so his administration could hammer out a deal to keep the app running in the U.S.

The CNN report notes that it’s still possible — though unlikely — for the Biden administration to halt the ban. The law lets the president permit for a one-time extension of up to 90 days. However, Biden would first need to show Congress that there’s been progress on a sale of TikTok. That would be a hard case to make as ByteDance has insisted the company isn’t for sale.

There are some interested buyers. For example, Bloomberg News reported earlier his week that the Chinese government is considering selling the platform to billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump ally and owner of social media site X.

Meanwhile, another Chinese social platform has apparently begun drawing American users ahead of the ban. As covered here earlier this week, RedNote — traditionally a place to find recommendations on beauty, food and other lifestyle topics — has attracted several hundred thousand new users from the U.S.