US lawmakers call on Biden to extend the deadline to ban TikTok on January 19 Reuters writes
David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Democratic lawmakers urged Congress and President Joe Biden on Monday to extend a Jan. 19 deadline for China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a U.S. ban.
On Friday, the Supreme Court held arguments on Tiktok and ByteDance challenging the law. The companies’ lawyer, Noel Francisco, said it would be impossible to complete the sale by next week’s deadline.
He said that if banned, the short video app used by 170 million Americans would disappear quickly and “the platform would effectively shut down.”
Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days if he confirms that ByteDance is making significant progress toward a sale, but it is unlikely that ByteDance could meet that standard.
Senator Edward Markey said he plans to introduce legislation to extend the deadline by which ByteDance must sell TikTok or face a ban for an additional 270 days.
“A ban would destroy a unique information and cultural ecosystem, silencing millions in the process,” Markey said Monday.
“Banning TikTok would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihoods. We cannot allow this to happen.”
President-elect Donald Trump asked the court to delay implementation of the law, arguing that he should have time after taking office on January 20 to find a “political solution” to the problem.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat, called on Biden and Trump on Monday “to put a pause on this ban so that 170 million Americans don’t lose their free speech. Millions of Americans will lose their lives if this ban goes into effect.”
If the court doesn’t block the law by Sunday, new downloads of TikTok on the Apple (NASDAQ: ) or Google (NASDAQ: ) app stores will be banned, but existing users can continue to access the app for a while. Services would degrade and eventually stop working as companies would be banned from providing support.
The White House did not immediately comment.
