US President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for TikTok to find a buyer in another country or be banned in the US. Trump gave another 75 days to find a solution, AFP reports.
"My administration is working very hard on a deal to save TikTok and we have made tremendous progress," Trump wrote on the Truth Social , just hours before the deadline was set to expire.
"The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an executive order to keep TikTok up and running for another 75 days," he added.
The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has over 170 million US users, is threatened by a law that was overwhelmingly passed last year ordering TikTok to separate from its Chinese owner ByteDance or be shut down in the US.
Trump insists his administration is close to a deal to find a buyer for TikTok and prevent a shutdown that would involve multiple investors, but didn't give many details.
Motivated by national security concerns and the belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban went into effect on January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration.
In the hours leading up to that deadline, TikTok temporarily suspended operations in the U.S. and disappeared from app stores, to the dismay of millions of users.
But Trump quickly announced an initial 75-day suspension, and TikTok subsequently restored the service to users, returning to Apple and Google's app stores in February.
The new 75-day delay extends the deadline to June 19.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app's U.S. business.
On April 4, the president added that he would "continue to work in good faith with China," whose government would have to sign off on the deal.
The Republican suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the harsh tariffs it has imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide series of levies.
According to reports, the solution being worked on involves existing US investors in ByteDance transferring their stakes to a new independent global company, TikTok.
Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, a private equity firm, will be brought in to reduce ByteDance's stake.
Much of TikTok's U.S. operations already reside on Oracle servers, and the company's chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally. | BGNES
