Trump Extends Deadline by 75 Days: ‘We Don’t Want TikTok to Go Away’

75 days – that’s how much TikTok got from the US president. Donald Trump extended the deadline by which the Chinese company ByteDance must sell the American part of the app’s video business to a buyer (outside China). If this does not happen, TikTok will be blocked in the States.

TikTok is used by half of Americans, but the future of the wildly popular app is uncertain. ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok, must find a new buyer for its U.S. assets. The previous deadline was Saturday (April 5), but TikTok has gained time. “ The deal requires more work to get all the necessary approvals signed ,” President Donald Trump said .

If the Chinese do not find a buyer, TikTok faces a ban on its operations in the United States, which was to come into effect in January.

The US president stressed that his administration is in talks with four different groups regarding a potential agreement, although he did not reveal their names.

We don’t want TikTok to disappear

— said Donald Trump.

According to Reuters, White House talks on TikTok’s future center around a plan for the largest non-Chinese investors in parent company ByteDance to increase their stakes and take over the app’s U.S. operations.

China has not made any public commitments
The plan involves spinning off a U.S. entity for TikTok and reducing China’s stake in it below the 20 percent threshold required by U.S. regulations.

The biggest obstacle to any deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations is approval from the Chinese government. So far, Beijing has not publicly committed to allowing the sale.

In January, TikTok was temporarily unavailable in the US as a ban on the service was approaching if it remained owned by ByteDance. The day after his inauguration, Trump pushed back the start of the law by two and a half months, which is how the platform was restored. The US president admitted at the time that he had changed his mind about the Chinese app after it helped him win over young voters.