Trump again extends deadline for potential TikTok ban

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday allowing users in the United States to continue to access the short-form video app until Sept. 17. A law passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden last year would have banned the app from the United States unless it came under American ownership by Jan. 19, 2025. Trump’s Thursday order marked the third deadline extension, giving TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, another three months to sell the app or lose its American users.

What has TikTok said? The platform released a Thursday statement praising Trump’s decision, adding that it planned to continue working with Vice President J.D. Vance’s office on the matter. Over 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses depend on the platform, the statement added.

Why does Trump continue to extend the deadline? Trump promised to keep TikTok accessible for Americans, but he also wants to make sure that data from U.S. users is secure, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. Extending the deadline gives both sides more time to broker a deal, which is what the president wants, she said.

Legislators initially passed the measure based on perceived security and censorship risks the app posed due to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. ByteDance fought the law’s enactment in court, with the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the law days before the Jan. 19 deadline.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report on Trump’s previous deadline extension in April.