Social media Trump offers Tiktok longer deadline for sale
US President Donald Trump has held out the prospect of an even longer extension for the impending closure of the video app Tiktok in the USA. At the same time, he said that this would not be the case at best, as there was a lot of interest in Tiktok.
14.02.2025, 01:39
14.02.2025, 03:36
SDA
Trump had initially suspended the implementation of the US law on the sale of Tiktok for 75 days after taking office. The US President has now said that he is certain that the deadline can be extended further.
The law passed last year stipulated that Tiktok owner Bytedance, which is based in China, had to divest itself of Tiktok by January 19 in order for the app to remain available in the US. Trump also insists that the service must come under American control. In the meantime, he had said that "the USA" should get a 50 percent share.
Green light needed from Beijing
Trump also conceded that a deal on Tiktok would "probably" require China's approval. However, he believes that Beijing will also be interested "because it is also to their advantage". The Chinese government has banned the sale of algorithms such as Tiktok's abroad without its approval. The software decides which videos you get to see and is therefore the cornerstone of the platform.
Meanwhile, Trump's deadline extensions for Tiktok are not based on the Foreign Ownership of Online Platforms Act. This only stipulates that the US President can grant a one-off 90-day extension if there are promising sales negotiations. However, Tiktok and Bytedance have so far refused to discuss a separation.
In the US, there are warnings that the Chinese government could use Tiktok to collect information about American users and influence public opinion. Tiktok rejects this.
Meanwhile, Apple and Google returned Tiktok to their American app stores for the first time since January 19. The move was preceded by a letter from US Attorney General Pam Bondi, reported the financial service Bloomberg. US users who hastily deleted the app before the deadline and during a temporary shutdown have not been able to download it again.
