The contract to sell Tiktok’s operations in the US requires approval from the Chinese government amid the trade war between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump will give Tiktok a new 90-day extension this week to find non-Chinese buyers, the White House said Tuesday for the third time he postponed a threatening ban on popular apps.
A federal law requiring a ban on the sale of Tiktok or national security grounds was to take effect the day before Trump took office in January.
“President Trump is scheduled to sign additional executive orders this week to keep Tiktok running. As he has said many times, President Trump does not want Tiktok to go dark,” spokesperson Caroline Leavitt said in a statement.
“This expansion will last for 90 days, and the administration will work to ensure that this deal is closed.
Trump, whose 2024 election campaign relies heavily on social media, has previously said he liked video sharing apps.
“There’s a slightly warmer place in Tiktok’s heart,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News in early May. “If you need an extension, we’re happy to provide it.”
Digital Cold War?
Trump said a group of buyers are ready to pay “a hefty sum” to the US business of video clip sharing sensations.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the risk that Tiktok is at risk, and says he is confident in finding buyers for the US business of the app.
The president is “not motivated to do anything about Tiktok,” said independent analyst Rob Endere. “Unless they’re on the bad side of him, Tiktok will probably be in pretty good shape.”
Trump has long supported the ban or sale, but has overturned his position and vowed to protect his platform after believing that it would help him win the support of young voters in the November election.
Motivated by fears and beliefs about national security in Washington, and by belief in Washington that Tiktok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban came into effect on January 19, a day before Trump took office, and the ordinance refused to find a suitor.
Shwetasing, assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in the UK, said:
The Republican president has announced a ban delay for the first 75 days of inauguration. The second extension pushed the deadline until June 19th.
Tariff confusion
Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal regarding the sale of Tiktok if it hadn’t been disputed over his tariffs on Beijing.
Bytedance said it needs to confirm consultations with the US government and resolve important issues, and that all transactions will be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”
Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors look beyond their interests and seeing their role into new, independent, global tiktok companies.
Additional US investors, including Oracle and Private Equity Firm Blackstone, will be brought in to reduce the share of Buitedan in the new Tiktok.
Much of Tiktok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, has been a longtime Trump ally.
Uncertainty remains, especially as to what happens to Tiktok’s valuable algorithms.
“Tiktok without algorithms is like Harry Potter without his wand. It’s simply not powerful,” said Forester principal Kelsey Chickering.
Meanwhile, Tiktok appears to be continuing his business as usual.
On Monday, Tiktok introduced a new “symphony” suite of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow advertisers to turn words and photos into video snippets for the platform.
©2025 AFP
Quote: Trump extended third Tiktok deadline (June 18, 2025) June 25, 2025 https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-trump-tiktok-deadline.html
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