The Wall Street Journal reported that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, had planned to sign an executive order extending the ban on TikTok in the United States until 19 January 2026. This was the third extension of the Trump ban since taking office in January, with the original deadline for TikTok being 19 June.
Trump ‘ s first attempt to ban TikTok was made in 2020, on the grounds that the byte beating of its parent company could reveal personal data of United States users and constitute a threat to national security. Despite TikTok ‘ s repeated denial of these allegations and its emphasis that its data were stored on servers in the United States and Singapore, the United States Foreign Investment Commission (CFIUS) kept its operations under review.
In 2024, under the Protection of Americans from Foreign Counterpart Control Applications Act, the United States Government required TikTok ‘ s parent company to divest itself of its United States business by the byte by 19 January 2025, otherwise TikTok would face an exclusion from the application store and an operational ban. On 4 April 2025, Trump signed an executive order authorizing a 75-day extension of TikTok ‘ s operation in the United States.
In its statement, Trump stated that the extension of the grace period was intended to “provide space for negotiations and potential solutions”, while ensuring the security of United States user data. At a press conference last week, Trump stressed, “I want to save TikTok, I mean, TikTok is really good for us.”
TikTok has taken a number of measures to address the concerns of the United States Government, including the launch of Project Texas, the storage of United States user data in an independent cloud managed by Oracle and the acceptance of third-party audits. TikTok also committed $2 billion to strengthen the data security infrastructure.
Byte beats are negotiating with potential buyers (e.g. United States technology companies and private equity groups) to divest TikTok of United States business, but as of June 2025, no final agreement had been reached. Chief Executive Officer Zhou Zi Chew of TikTok indicated that the company would continue to work with the Government to find “a solution that protects user privacy and platform freedom”.
TikTok has more than 170 million active month users in the United States, representing more than 50 per cent of the United States population, and is widely used for entertainment, marketing and social interaction. Market analysts have pointed out that TikTok ‘ s potential isolation may involve tens of billions of dollars in the scale of transactions, but complex geopolitical factors have filled the negotiations with uncertainty.
