(WASHINGTON) — As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, one of his first orders of business will be to decide about the fate of TikTok in the United States — and some of his cabinet appointees appear to be split on the issue.
Sources familiar with the president-elect’s thinking told ABC News that he may try to stop the ban of the popular social media app, which according to a new law must either find a new U.S. owner by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
Trump’s pick to lead the FCC, Brendan Carr, signaled support for banning TikTok in 2022.
“I think either a total ban or some sort of action like that that’s going to completely sever the corporate links back into Beijing,” Carr told NPR, referencing concerns about possible data usage on the Chinese-owned app.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz — Trump’s controversial pick to for attorney general, who would lead the department that would enforce any ban — voted against a ban of the app while he was a member of the House — though he signaled some support for the initiative.
“Banning TikTok is the right idea. But this legislation was overly broad, rushed and unavailable for amendment or revision. This is no way to run a railroad (or the internet),” Gaetz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, at the time.
TikTok and its parents company, ByteDance, have sued the U.S. government over the potential ban, ABC News previously reported, saying it’s unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment, while pushing back on claims about the app being security risk.
“Congress itself has offered nothing to suggest that the TikTok platform poses the types of risks to data security or the spread of foreign propaganda that could conceivably justify the act,” TikTok’s lawsuit said.
A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
As ABC News previously reported, Trump could try to stop the ban through a number of methods, including pushing Congress to repeal the law banning the app, refusing to enforce the ban, or helping TikTok find a U.S. buyer to comply with the law and render the issue moot.
The ban of the app was spearheaded in Congress by former Rep. Mike Gallagher, who said in an April interview with the New York Times that TikTok posed an “espionage threat” and a “propaganda threat” and that China is “America’s foremost adversary.”
Responding to allegations regarding TikTok, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Nig last year said that China “has never and will not” direct companies to illegally collect data in other countries, according to The New York Times.
In testimony before Congress, TikTok’s CEO also said the app was “free from any manipulation from any government” and that he had “seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data. They have never asked us, we have not provided it,” according to NPR.
Gallagher resigned early this year and took a job with software company Palantir Technologies. A spokesperson for Gallagher rebuffed questions raised at the time over his swift move to Palantir, a company that was vocal about its opposition to TikTok, according to Forbes magazine.
“Congressman Gallagher knows and complies with the House Rules, which includes those about negotiating outside employment,” the spokesperson said in a statement regarding the Forbes report.
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