President Donald Trump will extend a deadline for TikTok parent company ByteDance to comply with a law passed last year that effectively forces it to sell off its domestic business.
This week, the White House said Trump will extend the deadline on Thursday to give ByteDance another 90-day window to sell off its U.S. business.
TikTok could be banned from U.S.-based app stores run by Google, Apple, Amazon and others if it does not comply with the law, which was signed by former President Joe Biden last year over domestic security concerns that have not been substantiated with publicly-available evidence.
The short-form video app was briefly pulled from app stores in January after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to support TikTok in the early phase of its legal effort to overturn the law. TikTok sought an emergency injunction to prevent the ban from taking effect. Lower courts sided with the Biden administration, and later the Trump administration, on the issue.
Biden and Trump previously agreed that forcing ByteDance to sell its business to an American company will allow it to be better regulated. ByteDance previously said the Chinese government would not allow it to sell its business to an American firm.
Trump has since warmed to the idea of keeping TikTok in American app stores, and has offered multiple reprieves to the law through an exemption that allows a sitting president to delay its effects if ByteDance can demonstrate it is making efforts to sell its U.S. business. So far, ByteDance has offered no proof that it is doing so.
Earlier this month, Trump told BBC News he believed the Chinese government will ultimately approve a deal for ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business to an American company or investors.
“We’ll probably have to get China approval,” Trump said when questioned by a BBC News reporter aboard Air Force One. “I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”
TikTok has around 170 million users in the United States. The app allows users to produce and upload short-form videos on everything from cooking and recipes to make-up tutorials and dances.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are split on whether TikTok is worth salvaging. Some use the platform to reach younger voters, and are worried about cutting off a key communication funnel to those constituents if the app is banned.
