Out of the frying pan, into the fryer. TikTok might’ve skirted the previous Jan. 19 deadline, but a potential ban still looms under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Upon taking office, Trump directed the Department of Justice to delay enforcing the TikTok ban for 75 days, which created a new April 5 deadline. That may seem like a lot of time to find a sale or resolution with ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, but deadlines have a habit of sneaking up.
We’ve got the details on what’s happened since Trump’s inauguration and what to expect in the coming weeks and months.
What needs to happen
Basically, the same thing needs to happen as the last deadline. TikTok needs to sell its U.S. business or find some other resolution that satisfies Congress and the Trump administration. That makes the ultimate end goal a bit fungible, but it seems negotiations are underway.
Multiple groups and entities, including the U.S. government, have been reportedly lining up to purchase TikTok. Trump is reportedly interested in starting a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, which could, in turn, purchase TikTok.
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“We’re going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok, perhaps not,” Trump said this week. “If we make the right deal, we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t. But I have the right to do that. And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make, or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people. A lot of options. But we could put that as an example in the fund.”
Plenty of companies and groups have also been connected to a potential sale. In the last 10 days or so, that list includes Oracle, Microsoft, and various rich celebrities.
ByteDance has seemed quite resistant to selling, but that may be changing as the April 5 deadline looms. ByteDance board member Bill Ford said at an Axios event late last month that he expects a sale to happen.
“It’s in everybody’s interest,” Ford said.
That may be the case, but the clock is once again ticking.
