Mr Viral
Two U.S. senators are asking the president to approve a once-off 90-day extension to the TikTok ban deadline. Photo Credit: Scrumshus
With just 30 days remaining until TikTok’s forced-sale deadline in the U.S., senators from both sides of the aisle are asking the president to approve a one-time 90-day extension.Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) made that request in a straightforward letter to President Biden. As more than a few creators, businesses, and users are already aware, a months-old law will soon force TikTok to go dark in the U.S. unless its ByteDance parent divests.
Less widely known than that January 19th cutoff, however, is the president’s ability to extend the TikTok ban deadline by 90 days under the relevant law, full title the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
TikTok and ByteDance have long underscored that they don’t intend to sell. And while they’ll bring their challenge before the Supreme Court next month, the sought result isn’t guaranteed. Plus, with an oral argument slated for January 10th, it’d be an understatement to say that the challenge will go down to the wire.
Enter the senators’ concise extension request, which spans approximately 170 words and cuts directly to the chase.“The stakes here are high: As a practical matter, even if the Court rules that the law is constitutional by the January deadline, ByteDance cannot divest TikTok in that limited time,” the to-the-point letter reads in part. “Consequently, absent a judicial injunction, decision overturning the law, or action by you, TikTok will soon be banned in the United States, causing its creators and users serious hardship.
“Given the law’s uncertain future and its consequences for free expression, we urge you to trigger the 90-day extension before January 19,” the text concludes.
Notably, some reports are suggesting that the president is unable to extend the deadline under the law as written. Returning for a moment to the measure’s actual text, the president can “grant a 1-time extension of not more than 90 days.”
To do so, though, he’d have to acknowledge to Congress that “a path to executing a qualified divestiture has been identified,” present “evidence of significant progress toward executing such qualified divestiture,” and confirm that “there are in place the relevant binding legal agreements to enable execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension.”
Notwithstanding these requirements, logic, the senators’ letter, and loose definitions of “significant” as well as “in place” suggest that President Biden could probably green-light the extension without issue.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether this extension will come to fruition. But as the senators also noted in their letter, the decision is particularly important given that President-elect Trump’s inauguration will take place on the 20th, one day following the TikTok ban cutoff.
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