Photo Credit: Nordskov Media
President Trump grants TikTok another 75-day extension to comply with the law requiring the company to sell to a US entity or face a federal ban.
A day before the previous deadline on April 5, Donald Trump has extended TikTok’s deadline by another 75 days. The extension buys TikTok time to comply with a law that requires the platform to divest from its Chinese parent ByteDance or face a ban in the US.
“We do not want TikTok to go dark,” wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform on Friday. “We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the deal.”
ByteDance released a statement on Friday, saying it has been in discussion with the Trump administration, but that “an agreement has not been executed.”
“There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law,” said a ByteDance spokesperson.
The hugely popular TikTok, which has over 170 million users in the US, briefly went dark before Trump took office as the app prepared to shut down in the country. Congress passed a bipartisan law last year giving ByteDance six months to sell its controlling stake in TikTok or see the platform shuttered in the US.
Lawmakers have argued that the platform’s Chinese ownership could enable its use as a tool for political manipulation and other threats to national security.
The latest extension comes as the Trump administration attempts to broker a deal to bring TikTok under American ownership and keep it operational in the United States. Vice President JD Vance is said to be leading the administration’s efforts to secure a buyer.
Potential buyers have included billionaire Frank McCourt and Canadian business guru Kevin O’Leary; private equity giant Blackstone; venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Perplexity AI; and big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon. Despite the seemingly endless list of interested parties, a sale can only move forward if ByteDance (and the Chinese government) agrees to sell.
But China now faces a 54% tariff on goods imported to the US, leading to its retaliation with 34% in counter-tariffs. Trump has suggested the US could offer a deal in which China agrees to approve a TikTok sale in exchange for reduced US tariffs on Chinese imports.
“We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs,” said Trump, adding that such trade levies are “the most powerful economic tool, and every [sic] important to our national security.”
