President Donald Trump will once again push the TikTok sale deadline by 90 days, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. This marks the third time Trump has extended the deadline.
White House statement on extension
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, reported by The Hill. “This extension will last 90 days, which the administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”
Ongoing concerns over Chinese ownership
The U.S. government has expressed concern that a Chinese-owned company might allow the Chinese government to access data from the 170 million American users or influence content on the platform.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. government mandated that ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, sell TikTok’s U.S. operations by Jan. 19, 2025, or face a ban in the United States.
Timeline of events and deal collapse
The law was scheduled to take effect the day before Trump’s second inauguration, resulting in a 12-hour outage on TikTok in the United States. Trump responded to this outage by granting an extension and later issued another extension in April.
In early April, the U.S. and TikTok had a deal. However, Trump’s tariffs toward China caused tensions that led to the deal falling apart. The Chinese government then said it would not approve any sale of TikTok.
