Trump extends ultimatum for the sale of TikTok for the third time
The president announced via social media that he had postponed the deadline by 90 days for ByteDance to sell the social network to a U.S. company or shut it down for good.
TikTok logo
"I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025)," President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social, accompanying the message with a screenshot of the signed text. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
It is the third time that the Republican has postponed the date for the Chinese company ByteDance to get rid of the social network, selling it to a U.S. company or shutting it down. Former President Joe Biden, who signed the sale bill into law, refused to impose the first deadline of the ban, dated a day before he left office.
From the Administration insist that the president "doesn't want TikTok to disappear." "Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?", Trump himself wondered earlier this year, accompanying his message with statistics from his personal account on the platform: 1.4 billion total views. Days later he invited the network's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, to his inauguration.
The future of TikTok has been in suspense since the previous Congress sanctioned, with bipartisan support, the law that forces it to change ownership. Lawmakers then cited security concerns, questioning the access the Chinese Communist Party might have to sensitive user data. They also claimed that it was being used as a propaganda tool.
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At least for the time being, ByteDance has been refusing to sell its flagship product internationally, which has more than 170 million users in the United States alone. Although details of the negotiations are unknown, in recent months there has been a parade of names of interested parties, from technology companies such as Amazon and Oracle to influencer Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), including Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary and entrepreneur Frank McCourt.
The latest information, collected by AFP, suggests that a protocol has been reached to separate TikTok USA from the Chinese group, restructuring its capital.
The dispute over the ownership of TikTok even went to the Supreme Court. The app's owners appealed to the highest court claiming that the forced sale violated the First Amendment. The justices dismissed this argument. Trump also suggested using the social network as a bargaining chip in tariff negotiations with Beijing, a proposal that the latter came out to reject within hours.
Republican voices of discontent
"I would like to see the bill go into effect," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in remarks picked up by Axios. "I don't like it the best," his House and party colleague Josh Hawley told the same media outlet.
"I'm fine with him trying to sell it, that's fine, but I think at a certain point we have to enforce this law."
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