Trump postpones TikTok ban for 90 days

Washington: US President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the ban on TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and the sale or divestment of its US assets by another 90 days, with the new date set for September 17, 2025.

This is the third time that President Trump has extended the deadline. Without this extension, TikTok would have been banned from Thursday.

TikTok said in a statement that we are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support, thanks to which 170 million American users and 7.5 million businesses will be able to maintain access to TikTok.

The decision was made despite a law that was passed in April 2024, according to which ByteDance had to either sell its US assets or shut down the app by January 19, 2025.

The law was challenged in the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court upheld the ban.

White House spokeswoman Caroline Lute said that President Trump does not want TikTok to be shut down, but it is also important to ensure data security.

She said that the government will try to complete the sale process in the next 3 months so that the data of American users is protected.

The United States and China were considering a deal under which TikTok's American operations were to be converted into a new American company, which would be controlled by American investors, but China blocked the deal due to the tariffs imposed by Trump.

According to a survey, one-third of adults in the United States use TikTok, with 59 percent of those under 30 using it, while 67 percent of teenagers use it.

Democrats objected to Trump's extension of the deadline, saying the president lacked the legal authority to do so and that the agreement under consideration did not meet legal requirements.