President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for compliance with a law that requires TikTok, the mega-popular social media platform, to either sell its U.S. operations, or face a ban in the country. Thanks to Trump, TikTok now has an additional 75 days to find a buyer.
“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark’,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.” The platform is currently owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
On Friday, ByteDance said in a statement that it had been in discussion with the Trump administration, but “an agreement has not been executed.”
“There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law,” a spokesperson said.
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While a TikTok deal was reportedly finalized on April 2, it fell apart after Trump announced sweeping tariffs including on China. A source told CBS news that ByteDance representatives contacted the White House to inform them China would no longer approve the deal unless negotiations on the tariffs could take place.
The unnamed source also said that plan had been for Trump to sign an order initiating a 120-day period for closing the deal, allowing time to finish paperwork and secure financing. While the agreement was approved by investors, ByteDance, and the U.S. government, China backed out following the imposition of tariffs. The Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. stated that it “opposed practices that violate the basic principles of the market economy.”
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In January, the Supreme Court upheld a law that could potentially enact a ban on TikTok unless the app divested from ByteDance for its U.S. operations. TikTok went dark on Jan. 19 for the American users, but was restored within 24 hours. President Trump, who then took on the office, then signed an executive order which gave the app an initial 75 days to find a buyer by April 5 — the deadline ended over the weekend.
Several parties, including Oracle, Perplexity, and Amazon have been in the talks to buy TikTok, however, nothing has materialized as of yet.