(LifeSiteNews) — A federal ban on TikTok will not be enforced for at least another 90 days following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The viral video app, which is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and collects massive amounts of personal data on Americans, is supposed to shut down or be sold to an American buyer.
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, President Joe Biden signed the law last April with the support of many in both parties, due to Chinese parent company ByteDance’s links to the ruling CCP and its military and surveillance operations, sparking national security concerns over the Chinese regime’s access to the personal data of TikTok’s American users. The Supreme Court upheld the law in a 9-0 decision in January, soon before Trump took office.
The Biden administration delayed a decision in the final days in office, deferring to President Trump instead. He previously sanctioned TikTok and essentially banned it but changed his position in 2024 days after meeting with GOP mega-donor and TikTok shareholder Jeff Yass. Biden, for his part, had reversed Trump’s initial ban in 2021 before signing a law to ban it years later.
TikTok praised Trump in a statement. “We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President [JD] Vance’s Office,” the company told the media.
The president wants a deal made to keep TikTok alive, according to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” Leavitt said, according to NBC News. “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.”
A deal remains up in the air.
NBC News reported on Thursday:
Once in office, Trump signed an extension of the deadline to sell the app, giving ByteDance 75 days to find a buyer. That extension ended April 5. Ahead of the April 5 deadline, some potential TikTok suitors expressed interest in purchasing the app. Amazon made a last-minute bid to buy TikTok. Others who expressed interest included Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who joined billionaire investor Frank McCourt’s bid; artificial intelligence search engine startup Perplexity AI; and Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary in the first Trump administration.
Privacy concerns about the app have led 39 states to prohibit employees from using the devices on government phones as of March 2024, according to Forbes.
