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U.S. President Donald Trump announced on April 4 that TikTok will get yet another reprieve in Washington. The news comes less than 24 hours before the deadline for the Chinese-owned social media app to find an American buyer or get banned in the United States.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that “more work” is needed to secure necessary approvals for the deal. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’”
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on April 4 that TikTok will get yet another reprieve in Washington. The news comes less than 24 hours before the deadline for the Chinese-owned social media app to find an American buyer or get banned in the United States.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that “more work” is needed to secure necessary approvals for the deal. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’”
Trump said his administration will continue to negotiate with the Chinese government, which has opposed a sale of TikTok by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. He also placed export restrictions on the video app’s recommendation algorithm. “We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs,” he wrote, referencing his sweeping global trade duties announced earlier this week. “This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security!”
It’s not the first time Trump has mentioned TikTok and tariffs in the same breath. He previously floated the idea that tariff exemptions could be used to convince China to allow a TikTok sale and did so again aboard Air Force One on April 3.
The list of reported suitors for the app is a long one. It includes large investment firms such as Blackstone, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz; tech giants like Amazon and Oracle; and artificial intelligence company Perplexity. Frank McCourt, the billionaire former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have also expressed a strong interest in purchasing the platform, with McCourt leading a consortium that is offering to buy it without the algorithm.
That algorithm, which decides what videos TikTok’s users see on their screens as they scroll, is at the core of the app’s controversy. The concern among many lawmakers and national security officials has been that the Chinese government could weaponize ByteDance’s control of the algorithm to beam nefarious messages onto the smartphones of the 170 million Americans who use TikTok, backed by Chinese laws that can force compliance from any company based within China’s borders. Those laws have also stoked fears that China could demand TikTok’s U.S. user data from ByteDance for surveillance or influence operations.
What form a deal would take remains unclear. In a statement on April 4, a ByteDance spokesperson said the company has been in talks with the U.S. government. “An agreement has not been executed. There are key matters to be resolved,” the spokesperson said. “Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”
This post is part of FP’s ongoing coverage of the Trump administration. Follow along here.
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