The countdown clock to a TikTok ban just got reset.
What happened: Donald Trump granted TikTok another 75-day extension to find an American buyer or face a ban in the U.S.
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The first extension expired Saturday, but Trump said a deal was getting closer and he doesn’t want the app to go dark.
Why it matters: A TikTok ban in the U.S. — a prospect that seemed very possible only a few months ago when the app briefly went offline in the country — appears less and less likely.
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Public support for a TikTok ban has fallen from 50% in March 2023 to 34% today, and the White House is reportedly reluctant to anger the one-third of Americans who make up the app’s U.S. user base by shutting it down.
What’s next: A diverse group of big-name buyers are circling the app, including Amazon, the founder of OnlyFans, the AI company Perplexity, YouTube star MrBeast, and a consortium led by Trump allies Marc Andreessen and Larry Ellison.
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Another option under consideration could see TikTok’s algorithm, arguably the most valuable part of the app, leased to an American company that will take only a minority ownership stake in the platform, with China-based ByteDance keeping majority ownership.
Yes, but: The ownership of TikTok’s algorithm is still a major sticking point in talks. China may not want TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to surrender control of the platform’s secret sauce. A deal that didn’t involve such a handover, however, would certainly raise harsh criticism from policymakers concerned about how much control Beijing has over what Americans see in their feed.—TS