TikTok will continue to be available in the iOS and Google Play spp stores for at least another 90 days, as U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to delay the upcoming TikTok ban for another 90 days, according to Axios. This will mark the third extension of the ban since Trump took office in January.
Trump’s second TikTok ban extension expires on June 19 and there is still no sign of a deal that would sell the Chinese-based social app’s U.S. operations to a U.S. company.
Offers have been made from companies like Oracle Perplexity and even Amazon, as well as individuals such as Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary, Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley, Jimmy Donaldson (also known as MrBeast), billionaire Frank McCourt, and others.
The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act has been in effect since January 19, but Trump at the time ordered the Department of Justice not to enforce the law for a 75-day period. The window was set to expire on Saturday, April 5 if a deal had not been made to sell the app to an American company, but TikTok now has now been granted another two and a half month reprieve.
The law requires TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese company, and ByteDance was given nine months in which to do so. However, the company chose to appeal the ruling instead of searching for buyers. ByteDance argued the law was unconstitutional, as it violated the First Amendment. Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying that as a Chinese company, ByteDance does not have First Amendment rights.
ByteDance has repeatedly said it would not sell TikTok, as the code was quite complex and it would need to be uncoupled from ByteDance’s software tools. The Chinese government has opposed a sale, as the proprietary TikTok algorithm would need to be included in any sale.
