Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Posted by Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump would not block the continued Chinese ownership of TikTok if measures are taken to ensure that American users’ data is protected and stored in the US, an adviser to Ts’ Homeland Security Mike Waltz told CNN on Sunday.
TikTok stopped serving its 170 American users on Sunday after a law went into effect restricting the operation’s ongoing operations over concerns that Americans’ data could be misused by Chinese officials.
Waltz, a member of Congress whose appointment as defense adviser is subject to Senate confirmation, told CNN that the president-elect is working to “save TikTok” and is not ruling out ownership. of China to continue along with “firewalls to ensure that data is protected here on US soil.”
Trump said he will “probably” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok made in a notice sent to users of the app.
Waltz also spoke to CBS News on Sunday and said that Trump needs time to solve the problems related to TikTok while adding that an extension is needed for TikTok to evaluate the intended customers.
However, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has sent conflicting signals, saying he believes Trump will push TikTok parent ByteDance to sell the app.
“The way we’re reading it is that he’s going to try to force a real split, change hands, ownership,” Johnson said. “It’s not the platform that the members of Congress were concerned about. It’s the Chinese Communist Party.”
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have rejected the idea of TikTok’s expansion.
Republican US Senators Tom, who is the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement on Sunday that “there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its (ban) effective date.”
