US President Donald Trump has once again pushed back a deadline requiring TikTok to be sold by its Chinese owner, Bytedance. Last year the US passed a law requiring either a sale or that the app be banned. This marks the third time that Trump has extended the deadline.
Trump signed the executive order yesterday, which does raise the question of whether TikTok will ever be forced into the sale: under this administration, at least. Trump did try to force TikTok’s sale during his first term, in 2020, but late last year decided it was great, actually: “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points.”
Trump is here referring to TikTok’s impact on the US Presidential election, which remains unclear. His claim to have won “youth by 34 points” has been debunked by multiple fact-checkers: Trump obviously won the election overall, but Democratic candidate Kamala Harris outperformed him among younger voters.
Anyway. Following Trump’s decision, TikTok issued this statement: “We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office.”
All sounds very cosy. US Lawmakers had argued that TikTok posed a threat to national security, and that Bytedance could be forced to hand over data on US users to Beijing (both of which TikTok denies). The ban was first passed by Congress before being upheld by the Supreme Court: Trump extended the ban on January 20, again in April, and the third extension pushes the date for a deal or sale back to September 17. Any deal is likely to need Beijing’s approval.
“[Trump’s] making an extension so we can get this deal done,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “It’s wildly popular. He also wants to protect Americans’ data and privacy concerns on this app. And he believes we can do both at the same time.”
The decision has been criticised by Democrats. “Once again, the Trump administration is flouting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks posed by a PRC-controlled TikTok,” said Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner. “An executive order can’t sidestep the law, but that’s exactly what the president is trying to do.”
With this third delay, the Tiktok situation is now a “deadline purgatory,” analyst Jeremy Goldman told the AP, “starting to feel less like a ticking clock and more like a looped ringtone. This political Groundhog Day is starting to resemble the debt ceiling drama: a recurring threat with no real resolution.”
