President-elect Donald J. Trump is considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating despite a pending legal ban until new owners are found, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The possible executive order, reported earlier by The Washington Post, is under discussion as TikTok faces a deadline on Sunday to be banned in the United States unless it finds a new owner. The popular video-sharing app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Republicans have said for years that they see the app, which has been downloaded to millions of smartphones, as a national security risk. It has become a rare issue that has united both parties in Congress.
If the Supreme Court upholds the law, which will ban the app unless ByteDance sells it to a non-Chinese company, special treatment from Mr. Trump might be the only way for TikTok to continue operating in the United States in the near term. The law requires app store operators like Apple and Google and cloud computing providers to stop distributing TikTok in the United States.
An executive order could try to direct the government not to enforce the law or to delay enforcement to complete a deal, a move that past presidents have used to challenge laws. It is unclear if an executive order would survive legal challenges or persuade the app stores and cloud computing companies to take steps that could expose them to massive penalties.
While there is some speculation that the app will still work if it has already been downloaded, the law also affects internet hosting companies like Oracle and other cloud computing providers, and it is unclear how video load times and the functionality of the app may respond.
One person close to Mr. Trump’s team said some of his allies had loose discussions about buying TikTok but provided no details. President Biden, whose term ends on Monday, a day after the ban is set to go into effect, is also under pressure to find a way to save the app.