Trump Grants TikTok 75 Days Extension Before Ban
President Trump has signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law that requires a sale or ban of the platform.
He says during that time, the US will not enforce the law passed by Congress last year and signed by former President Joe Biden.
The order was among a slew of directives Trump signed on Monday evening.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said: “I tell you what. Every rich person has called me about TikTok.”
When asked by a reporter why he’s had a change of heart since trying to ban TikTok in 2020, Trump responded: “Because I got to use it.”
BBC reports that Trump floated the possibility of a joint venture, saying he was seeking a 50-50 partnership between “the United States” and its Chinese owner ByteDance. But he did not give any further details on how that might work.
Trump also said potential new trade tariffs on China could be contingent on a deal over the platform’s ownership. If Beijing rejected a deal “it would be somewhat of a hostile act”, he said.
On Saturday evening, the Chinese-owned app stopped working for American users, after a law banning it on national security grounds came into effect.
It resumed services to its 170 million users in the US after Trump said he would issue an executive order to give the app a reprieve when he took office.
But on Monday it was still not available to download from the Apple and Google app stores.
The Biden administration had argued that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.
Opponents of a ban have cited freedom of speech as a reason for keeping the platform open.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, previously ignored a law requiring it to sell its US operations to avoid a ban.
The law was upheld by Supreme Court on Friday and went into effect on Sunday, but the Biden White House said it would leave implementing the law to the incoming administration given the timing.
Trump had backed a ban of the platform during his first term in office.
Credit: BBC
