President Trump Signs Executive Order to Delay TikTok Ban for 75 Days
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to delay TikTok’s ban for 75 days, giving the Chinese-owned video app more time to find a U.S. buyer.
Shortly after taking office on Monday, President Trump issued an order that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. — after a law banning the video app went into effect this weekend.
TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or face a ban on January 19. Trump’s order grants TikTok a 75-day extension to find a buyer.
The order — which was one of Trump’s first acts after taking office — directs the U.S. Justice Department not to enforce the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and was signed in April by former President Joe Biden.
“I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans,” Trump’s order says.
On Sunday, American social media users woke up to find that they no longer had access to TikTok, after the law — which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — banning it on national security grounds came into effect.
However, TikTok resumed services hours later and restored access to its 170 million users in the U.S. after Trump said he would issue an executive order to give the app a reprieve when he took office.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,” Trump, who has amassed nearly 15 million users on the platform, said.
Google and Apple still have not reinstated TikTok in their app stores, according to reports.
On Monday, Trump suggested that an American buyer purchase half of the company and run it as a 50-50 joint venture with its current owners. According to AP News, Trump claims that “every rich person” has contacted him about acquiring the video app.
However, despite Trump’s executive order, the future of TikTok in the U.S. still remains uncertain. It is unclear whether ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, would be willing to sell the platform, even if the deal were facilitated by Trump.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
