Trump says he’ll preserve extending TikTok shutdown deadline
Enterprise
Trump has to this point prolonged the deadline 3 times throughout his second time period — with the following one developing on Sept. 17.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is asking nationwide safety and privateness issues associated to TikTok and its Chinese language guardian firm “extremely overrated” and mentioned Friday he’ll preserve extending the deadline for the favored video-sharing platform till there’s a purchaser.
Congress accepted a U.S. ban on TikTok except its guardian firm, ByteDance, bought its controlling stake. However Trump has to this point prolonged the deadline 3 times throughout his second time period — with the following one developing on Sept. 17.
“We’re gonna watch the safety issues,” Trump informed reporters, however added, “We’ve got patrons, American-buyers,” and “till the complexity of issues work out, we simply prolong a little bit bit longer.”
The primary extension was via an govt order on Jan. 20, his first day in workplace, after the platform went darkish briefly when a nationwide ban — accepted by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court docket — took impact. The second was in April, when White Home officers believed they have been nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a brand new firm with U.S. possession that fell aside after China backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement.
His feedback observe the White Home beginning a TikTok account this week.
“I used TikTok within the marketing campaign,” Trump mentioned.
“I’m a fan of TikTok,” he mentioned. “My youngsters like TikTok. Younger individuals love TikTok. If we may preserve it going.”
Because the extensions proceed, it seems much less and fewer possible that TikTok shall be banned within the U.S. any time quickly. The choice to maintain TikTok alive via an govt order has obtained some scrutiny, however the administration has not confronted a authorized problem in courtroom — in contrast to lots of Trump’s different govt orders.
People are much more carefully divided on what to do about TikTok than they have been two years in the past.
A current Pew Analysis Heart survey discovered that about one-third of People mentioned they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third mentioned they’d oppose a ban, and an identical proportion mentioned they weren’t positive.
Amongst those that mentioned they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited issues over customers’ knowledge safety being in danger as a significant component of their resolution, in keeping with the report.
