President Donald Trump will extend a deadline for the owner of social media platform TikTok to find a U.S. buyer so that it can remain operating in the country, the White House said Tuesday.
Trump plans to sign an executive order this week that will keep the platform, which has about 170 million U.S. users, running despite a bipartisan law banning it over national security concerns.
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WATCH HEREThe law requires the app’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide prohibition.
In April, the president extended an earlier deadline by 75 days to avoid disruption for the app.
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SIGN UP "As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Tuesday.
The order will give ByteDance an additional 90 days to comply with the law, which was upheld early this year by the Supreme Court.
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"This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure," Leavitt said.
Earlier Tuesday, the president said that any divestiture deal would "probably have to get China approval, but I think we'll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it."
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