ByteDance Gets Second Extension to Sell, Postponing TikTok Ban Another 75 Days
In a seeming violation of the original law, President Trump has pushed back the deadline for TikTok's sale by another 75 days.
Written by Aleksander Hougen (Co-Chief Editor)
Reviewed by Jackie Leavitt (Co-Chief Editor)
Last Updated:
With the original deadline extension only a few hours from expiring, President Donald Trump on Friday issued another 75-day extension to the order for TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app or face a nationwide ban. This is the second time Trump has granted a stay of execution of sorts for the popular short form video platform.
The sale order, officially the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was signed into law by Trump’s predecessor in April of last year, with the original deadline for the sale set to Jan 19.
On Jan 18, the app went dark in the U.S. and was temporarily taken off mobile app stores, before being granted the original 75-day reprieve.
Since then, reporting has shown a great amount of interest from U.S. companies (including a last-minute offer from Amazon) in purchasing the app, but very little indicating that ByteDance is actually willing to sell.
Some reports even indicated that President Trump is considering a workaround that involves U.S. involvement in managing the app that falls short of an outright sale. Trump seemed to hint at such a deal in his post on Truth Social announcing the extension:
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”
However, it seems likely that this would be in violation of the law passed last year, as per Section 2, Part 3 of the act:
“With respect to a foreign adversary controlled application, the President may grant a 1-time extension of not more than 90 days”
For its part, the Trump administration seems unconcerned with violating the 2024 act. The law grants the President the power to extend the deadline with a one-time 90-day extension, a clause that Trump seemingly just violated by issuing a second extension.
With another 75 days on the clock, it remains unclear what the social media app’s ultimate fate in the U.S. will be. With 170 million TikTok users and 1.3 million creators (many of which rely on the platform for some or all of their income) in the U.S., many will no doubt turn to VPNs to unblock the app, should it go dark.
Whatever happens, we’ll be sure to keep following the story and keep you updated on any new developments.