Trump is going to postpone the TikTok ban for the third time

The White House has announced that it will allow TikTok to continue operating in the US for another 90 days, extending the deadline for the popular Chinese social media application to abandon its stake in the platform in accordance with US law, UNN writes, citing the Financial Times.

Details

"President [Donald] Trump will sign an additional decree this week to keep TikTok running," White House Press Secretary Caroline Livitt said on Tuesday. - As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go into the shadows."

"This extension will last 90 days, during which the administration will work to ensure that this agreement is closed so that Americans can continue to use TikTok, being confident that their data is safe," he said.

Supplement

Last year, the US Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner, to sell the app or face a ban in the US.

Trump has vowed to "save" the app and has twice extended the deadline - first from January to April and then from April to June 19 - after failing to reach an agreement that requires approval from China.

Before the April deadline, the White House was close to an agreement that would separate TikTok from ByteDance and create an American company to attract new investment, diluting the stakes of Chinese investors.

Under the terms of the agreement, investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Blackstone, will own approximately half of TikTok's US business, while major existing investors, including General Atlantic, Susquehanna and KKR, will own approximately 30 percent of the new entity.

ByteDance has informed the White House and investors that Beijing is ready to approve the deal, according to one person familiar with the matter. But after Trump announced tariffs on China and other countries on April 2, ByteDance informed investors that Beijing had withdrawn its approval. The White House waited for trade tensions between the US and China to ease before trying to revive the deal, according to the source.

In 2020, during his first term as president, Trump took steps to block TikTok, writing in a decree that data collection "threatens to give the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and confidential information."

However, Trump changed his approach to the platform after using it to reach young voters in the 2024 election. In May, Trump told NBC that he has "a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok".