The sell-by date for TikTok will be pushed back for a third time
The Third Time Donald Trump Will Spin Out TikTok or Face a US Constraint on its Online Distribution System and Implications for the Internet and the Apple Stores
For the third time, President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. The deadline is being extended by 90 days this week and Trump will sign an executive order in the middle of September, a White House spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.
Moves by Trump and his administration to assure TikTok and its service providers that U.S. authorities will not prosecute anyone under the law have been enough for the popular app to stay online. TikTok was back in the app stores in February.
Nobody has brought a lawsuit to stop Trump’s actions, but a court could evaluate whether his actions are legal. A lawsuit was filed against the company for allegedly not sharing internal records about its decision to disobey the law under Justice Department assurances. The shareholder has already filed a suit against the DOJ for not sharing information about the DOJ’s decision not to enforce the law against Apple.
The ByteDance deal and Trump’s executive order: Are we willing to negotiate? A senior tech policy analyst with the Verge
The tentative agreement between ByteDance and the coalition was nearly wiped out by Trump’s tariffs. While trade tensions between the US and China have simmered down, there’s been no recent news about resurrecting that deal or another one. Even when a sale seemed likely, it was unclear whether China would allow ByteDance to sell the valuable algorithm that powers TikTok’s video recommendations.
The senior policy reporter at The Verge is covering Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.
“We’ll be extending it. Trump told reporters at the White House that they were going to extend it. “We’re going to probably make a deal – I think we’ll need China’s blessing on it.”
The promise of a reprieve comes in the wake of a high-stakes meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials in London last week.
Trump signed an executive order on Inauguration Day that would push back the start of the ban by 75 days and promise immunity for other tech companies that provide back-end services for the app.
Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington law school who is following tech, spoke before the latest promise of an extension and stated that Trump has been outside of the framework so far.
“This president is not operating within Congress’s intent,” he said. It sets a bad precedent, since the president feels like he can ignore a congressional statute.
For his part, Trump contends that he is operating within the bounds of the law. On Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump said that he had the legal basis to extend the reprieve. Yes, we do.
