Trump Gives TikTok Another 75 Days to Live
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President Donald Trump has once again extended the deadline for a TikTok deal, The New York Times reports, adding another 75 days to the original reprieve he’d granted by executive order following his inauguration on January 20.
The initial extension would have expired tomorrow, April 5. The popular social media service and its parent company, ByteDance, now have until mid-June to reach a deal with a potential “non-adversarial” buyer.
The President and other sources close to the Trump Administration had suggested that a deal was near, and President Trump met with White House officials this week after Amazon made a last-minute offer to buy the social network. Nevertheless, it appears time is running out to close any potential deals.
“The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed,” the President wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding that “we do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’” Trump also hasn’t ruled out using the app as leverage in his tariff negotiations with China, which have just hit 54% after the Trump administration added another 34% on top of the 20% levied in two earlier rounds of tariffs.
It’s not even clear whether a formal offer is on the table or what that might be. Amazon’s bid wasn’t reportedly taken seriously, but several other parties have expressed interest. Microsoft, in a resurrection of its 2020 bid, and Perplexity.ai are potential corporate suitors, while others have looked at forming investment groups to take over the network. These include Elon Musk, Larry Elison of Oracle, Jimmy Donaldson (aka YouTuber MrBeast), Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank, former US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, and billionaire Frank McCourt.
ByteDance has also acknowledged for the first time that it’s having discussions with the Trump Administration, telling the Times that “there are key matters to be resolved” and “any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”
Technically speaking, TikTok doesn’t have to be sold to a US company — merely a company in a nation that’s not considered adversarial to US interests. One idea that Trump and others have proposed is bringing together an investment group that would buy a significant stake in TikTok.
This could get around ByteDance’s reluctance to sell TikTok. Still, at least 80% of the social media service would need to be owned by “non-adversarial” investors under the terms of the law — and it’s unclear if ByteDance is willing to give up that much.
The Story So Far…
This whole kerfuffle stems from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), a bipartisan bill passed in early 2024 that banned apps controlled by “adversarial” governments. As part of that bill, Chinese-owned ByteDance was given until January 19 to divest itself of TikTok. Otherwise, the service would be banned in the United States.
From the start, ByteDance made it clear that TikTok was not for sale. Instead, it appealed the ruling, arguing that banning TikTok would be a violation of free speech protected under the First Amendment. In December, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that national security concerns overrode First Amendment rights. A last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court failed to change TikTok’s status, with the nation’s highest court upholding the law in a unanimous 9-0 decision.
Following that ruling, TikTok went dark late on January 18 as Oracle and Akamai, who host the service in the US, began pulling the plug, and Apple and Google removed the app from their respective app stores. However, the outage didn’t even last 24 hours, as the service providers turned things back on following reassurances from then-President-Elect Trump.
True to his word, Trump signed an executive order on inauguration day, granting a 75-day extension to provide time to find a deal. Technically, the President doesn’t have the authority to override Congress on this matter, so the executive order merely ordered the Justice Department to delay enforcement of the law. Apple and Google were more circumspect about returning the TikTok app to their stores, but both eventually relented after written assurances from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In January, Senator Edward J. Markey proposed a new bill that would provide official congressional support to give TikTok more time. The Extend the TikTok Deadline Act would set a new deadline of October 16, 2025. However, it’s reportedly being held back by Senate Republicans.
Last week, Markey and two other Senators urged the President to convince Senate Republicans to vote for the legislation, expressing concern that the current situation puts Apple and other tech firms at risk. Blocking enforcement of the law isn’t the same as changing the law. With a five-year statute of limitations, a future administration could choose to prosecute all of the companies that violated the ban. This could lead to fines of up to $850 million against Apple, Google, Oracle, and Akamai
There’s also the possibility of lawsuits from shareholders, who may not appreciate the risks these companies are taking with their investments. As the Times notes, Akamai’s annual filing highlighted a risk factor that “even though President Trump has extended the enforcement deadline for a ban on the Chinese application, there is no assurance that we will not be exposed to liability.”
