President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will extend the deadline for TikTok’s owner to find a non-Chinese buyer by 75 days, averting what could have been another disruption of the app.
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ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, must find a non-Chinese buyer for the app or else it will be banned under a law passed in 2024. Trump had previously delayed the app’s ban via executive order on his first day in office, effectively giving ByteDance until April 5 — Saturday — to comply with the law.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”
ByteDance, which previously said it did not plan to sell TikTok, has remained silent about whether it was in talks with bidders and has not publicly confirmed it would divest at all.
NBC News has reached out to TikTok for comment.
“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark,’” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
He also referenced his recently imposed tariffs, saying said the administration hopes “to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!). This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security!”
China on Friday announced a 34% tariff on all products imported from the U.S., escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
TikTok’s future in the United States has been in limbo ever since former President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan legislation last year, with lawmakers citing national security concerns over the possibility of China accessing American users’ data.
The app has about 170 million U.S. users.
TikTok attempted to challenge the ban, but the Supreme Court upheld it in the final days of the Biden administration. By that point, however, both Biden and Trump had begun to distance themselves from the ban, with the former saying he would leave it up to the Trump administration to enforce.
The app briefly went dark in the U.S. just before Trump’s inauguration, but restored service after the president signaled that he would work with ByteDance to find a solution.
Trump’s announcement, which offered no details on how close a deal is to fruition, appeared to fall short of expectations set by Vice President JD Vance, who along with national security adviser Michael Watz is overseeing the TikTok matter.
Trump held a White House meeting Wednesday with Vance and a group of advisers to weigh final TikTok offers.
Vance last month expressed confidence that a “high-level agreement” would be in place by the deadline. And in an interview Thursday with Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Vance indicated that he believed a more substantive announcement was imminent.
“I think that we’re in a good place,” Vance told the show’s co-host, Lawrence Jones. “We’re going to keep on working at it, but I’ll let the president make that announcement.”
Jones then asked Vance what would happen if “it doesn’t come out before the deadline.”
“It’ll come out before the deadline,” Vance replied. “We need a couple days to continue working on it, to finalize things. And of course, we’re gonna let the president announce whatever we ultimately decide.”
Vance advisers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Numerous prospective bidders have expressed interest in acquiring the popular social media platform from ByteDance.
Wyoming entrepreneur Reid Rasner, who is among the prospective bidders, said he believes Trump “made the right call” in granting the extension.
“These next 75 days give us the runway to finish what we started—rallying Americans to ensure TikTok is owned, operated, and secured right here at home,” he said in a statement.
Other interested buyers include the likes of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who joined billionaire investor Frank McCourt’s bid; artificial intelligence search engine startup Perplexity AI; and former Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
On Wednesday, e-commerce giant Amazon and mobile technology company AppLovin became the latest companies to throw their hats in the ring.
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