TikTok Planning U.S. Version Of App Ahead Of Sale
As it stands, the Chinese internet company Bytedance-created social media app aims to shut down its current platform by March 2026.
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The news comes amid president Donald Trump's announcement to Fox News last week that a group of 'very wealthy people' are looking to buy the preeminently popular short-form video platform. POTUS added that he will reveal the investors' identities in the forthcoming couple of weeks. He also noted that the deal would likely require approval from the Chinese government but predicted Chinese President Xi Jinping would probably agree to do so.
This is the latest development in the long-running saga that is TikTok's status in the U.S. A ban, or a sale to U.S. interests of its business stateside, was voted into law by Congress, signed by former president Joe Biden and upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The legal deadline for the shutdown or sale was Jan. 19, the day before Trump took office. However, as one of his first acts in office, Trump immediately stayed law in what many considered to be a legally dubious move.
At the time, TikTok very briefly went dark in the country before resuming business as usual. Trump's third and latest extension on the ban runs through Sept. 17. (His first was on Jan. 20 and the second was in April.) The planned new app aims to launch in U.S. app stores Sept. 5, ahead of the deadline for the third extension.
In a statement commenting on the latest extension, the social media app wrote, 'We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance's Office.'
Last year, U.S. policymakers on both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly approved legislation requiring Bytedance to divest of the platform or else TikTok would face a ban on U.S. app stores; Congress did so citing national security concerns and fear that the Chinese government will mine the data of millions of U.S. consumers, something that has long been par for the course for U.S. based platforms as well, including Facebook. TikTok and ByteDance both deny this.
A potential TikTok deal became entangled in broader hostilities in recent months with China amid Trump's aggressive stance on trade that levied stiff tariffs on Chinese goods. The two countries, whose relationship previously tipped toward full-out trade war, are currently in a truce, with most import tax temporarily lowered as they negotiate a broader trade deal.
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