ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, is facing a looming September 15 deadline to sell its US operations or have them shut down by the Trump administration. On Thursday evening, President Trump told reporters that the deadline wouldn’t be pushed back.
“We’ll either close up TikTok in this country for security reasons, or it’ll be sold,” Trump said just before boarding a flight to Michigan. “I’m not extending deadlines. No. It’s on September 15. There will be no extension of the TikTok deadline.”
Reports indicate that both Microsoft and Oracle have made offers for ByteDance’s US operations. The problem is that the companies may not be able to appease the conflicting demands of the US and Chinese governments.
In early August, Trump declared TikTok a national security threat due to the potential for the Chinese government to collect data on American users and to conduct disinformation campaigns in the United States. Trump claimed that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act gives the president the authority to shut down an app like TikTok if it threatens national security.
However in an executive order last month, Trump had set September 15 as the deadline for the Chinese app to either change its ownership to an American company or shut it down
India was the first country to ban TikTok and more than 100 other Chinese mobile applications because of security reasons. Top US officials have praised India for the action and started the process of doing the same.
