BREAKING: Biden admin leaving enforcement of TikTok ban to Trump admin

A White House official told ABC News, "Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before the inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement."

The outlet noted that while the app itself isn’t required to go dark on Sunday, the Justice Department has the power to fine app stores and internet hosting services to the tune of $5,000 per user. TikTok says around 170 million people use its app each month.

The law requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell off the company to an American buyer. The president, under the law, is allowed to grant a one-time extension that delays the ban for up to 90 days on three conditions. TikTok must show that it’s on a "path of executing" a divesture from ByteDance. There is "evidence of significant progress" toward a sale, and that progress must be sealed with "relevant binding legal agreements."

On January 10, the Supreme Court heard arguments in TikTok’s case to stop the ban. Attorneys for the social media platform argued that the ban was in violation of the First Amendment because it was preventing the company from speaking in the US. Prosecutors for the DOJ argued that required divestment for national security reasons is not a free speech issue. Justices appeared to side with the government over TikTok in their questioning. The Supreme Court has yet to issue its ruling. A Monday report suggested that Chinese officials are considering a possible option to avoid the ban that would include Elon Musk, who also owns X, acquiring the US operations of TikTok.

Trump has argued against the ban, writing in an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court, "This case presents an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national-security concerns on the other. As the incoming Chief Executive, President Trump has a particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for those national-security and foreign-policy questions, and he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means."

The deadline, which takes place one day before Trump’s inauguration, is an "unfortunate timing" that "interferes with President Trump’s ability to manage the United States’ foreign policy and to pursue a resolution to both protect national security and save a social-media platform that provides a popular vehicle for 170 million Americans to exercise their core First Amendment rights," the brief stated.