TikTok will continue to operate in the United States for at least another three months as President Donald Trump is set to extend the deadline for a sale or ban of the app for the third time this year.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order to keep TikTok operational. The app was originally supposed to be banned in the US if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, failed to sell it to a US buyer by a January deadline.
According to Leavitt, the 90-day extension will provide assurance that the deal will be finalized and the American public can continue using TikTok with the assurance that their data will be secure. Before Leavitt’s announcement, Trump told the BBC that he “probably” would extend the TikTok deadline and mentioned the need for China’s approval for the extension.
The extension goes against the will of Congress, which passed the sale-or-ban measure last year and was immediately signed into law by former President Joe Biden. The law was intended to address concerns that TikTok, which has 170 million American users, could be used by China for spying and political manipulation. The Supreme Court upheld the law in January.
Trump’s efforts to force a sale of TikTok to an American buyer in 2020 were unsuccessful. Despite previously expressing disapproval, Trump said in December that he has a “warm spot” for TikTok because he believed it helped him win the 2024 presidential election.
Analysts have dismissed the possibility of a ban during Trump’s presidency given his multiple deadline extensions. Kelsey Chickering, a principal analyst at Forrester, stated that there is no longer a “looming” threat to TikTok’s future, as the company recently unveiled new AI video tools. Smaller players may try to steal market share during this “uncertain time,” but they will not succeed.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyqjepq2e1o
