U.S President Donald Trump will grant TikTok another 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer this week, delaying a threatened ban on the popular app for the third time.
A federal statute requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds was scheduled to go into effect the day before Trump’s January inauguration.
“President Trump will sign a second Executive Order this week to keep TikTok operational.
“As he has repeatedly stated, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“This extension will last 90 days, which the administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”
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Trump, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video sharing app.
Trump said at the time that a group of purchasers was ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance “a lot of money” for the video-clip-sharing sensation’s US operations.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.
Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’ support in the November election.
Motivated by national security fears and belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on Jan. 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor.
The Republican president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office. A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19.
Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over his tariffs on Beijing.
ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”
Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.
Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share in the new TikTok.
Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.
Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm.
Meanwhile, it appears TikTok is continuing with business as usual.
TikTok on Monday introduced a new “Symphony” suite of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform.
