by Washington (AP) President Donald Trump said Friday that he will continue to prolong the deadline for the well-known video-sharing site until a buyer is found, claiming that privacy and national security worries about TikTok and its Chinese parent business are greatly exaggerated.
Unless its parent company, ByteDance, relinquished its majority interest, Congress approved a U.S. ban on TikTok. However, during his second term, Trump has already delayed the deadline three times, and the next one is scheduled for September 17.
Trump told reporters, “We’re going to watch the security concerns,” but he also said, “We have buyers, American-buyers, and we just extend a little bit longer until the complexity of things work out.”
After the platform remained black for a short time due to a nationwide ban that was passed by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the first extension was granted by executive order on January 20, his first day in office. The second occurred in April, when White House officials thought they were getting close to an agreement to spin off TikTok into a new business that would be owned by the United States. However, after China withdrew after Trump announced tariffs, the agreement fell through.
His remarks come after this week’s launch of the White House’s TikTok account.
Trump claimed to have utilized TikTok during the campaign.
“I love TikTok,” he said. My children enjoy TikTok. Teenagers adore TikTok. If we could continue.
The likelihood of TikTok being outlawed in the US anytime soon seems to be decreasing as the extensions go on. Although there has been considerable criticism of the administration’s choice to use an executive order to keep TikTok afloat, unlike many of Trump’s previous executive orders, the administration has not been challenged in court.
Two years later, opinions among Americans on what should be done about TikTok are even more divided.
About one-third of Americans, compared to 50% in March 2023, indicated they were in favor of a TikTok ban, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. A third or so stated they would be against a ban, and another third said they weren’t sure.
About eight out of ten respondents who stated that they were in favor of banning the social media site said that their decision was largely influenced by worries about user data security.
