The White House on Saturday called TikTok’s statement warning that it will “go dark” on Sunday unless President Biden steps in a “stunt,” arguing the app doesn’t have to take action before President-elect Trump is sworn in.
“We have seen the most recent statement from TikTok. It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” outgoing press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote in a statement Saturday.
“We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration,” she added. “So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”
TikTok wrote that “the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers” in a statement, after the Supreme Court opted on Friday to uphold the law that will ban the app from the U.S. unless it’s Chinese parent company sells it.
The nation’s high court sided with the Biden administration days before Trump’s inauguration, finding the divest-or-ban law does not violate the First Amendment and teeing up a ban set to take effect Sunday.
The White House on Friday said the TikTok ban will fall to the Trump administration, and the president-elect said he would weigh the future of the app when he’s in office.
Biden signed the bipartisan bill passed by Congress last April, which gave TikTok’s parent company ByteDance 270 days to divest from the app or face a ban from U.S. app stores.
