Trump administration set to waive TikTok sell-or-die deadline for a third time – Source: go.theregister.com

The Trump administration is set to again waive the 2024 law that requires the made-in-China social network TikTok to either sell its US operations to a local company or stop operating on US soil.

A widely reported statement from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump intends to “sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running.”

“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” Leavitt added. “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.”

The law banning TikTok is called the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” (PAFACA) and passed with bipartisan support in April 2024. Lawmakers and think tanks called for the law to pass on grounds including:

• Banning TikTok is “an important bipartisan measure to take on China, our largest geopolitical foe, which is actively undermining our economy and security.”
• “Americans’ phones are being weaponized against them by a foreign adversary, and we cannot sit back and let that happen.”
• TikTok is a “noxious, CCP-beholden surveillance platform”
• “TikTok is a dangerous tool used by the CCP to spy on, exploit, and mislead the American people.”
• The app is “a data-harvesting weapon disguised as a social media platform.”
• TikTok is “a national security threat and acts as the puppet strings of Communist China to push their propaganda on the American people.”

The deadline for TikTok to divest to a local company was January 19th, 2025. That date came and went without a deal. Trump took office on January 20th and on that day issued an Executive Order that lamented the timing of the sell-or-die requirement as it “interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications of the Act’s prohibitions before they take effect.”

The Order also said the timing “interferes with my ability to negotiate a resolution to avoid an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform while addressing national security concerns.” Trump therefore waived the Act for 90 days and later did it again, meaning the divestiture deadline moved to June 19th.

• Trump promises protection for TikTok, for which he has a ‘warm spot in my heart’
• US to deny visas to foreign officials it says ‘censor’ social media
• App stores unconvinced by Trump’s TikTok ban pause, which may itself be on shaky legal ground
• Donald Trump proposes US govt acquire half of TikTok, which thanks him and restores service

In May, Trump said investors were ready to buy TikTok, but that until the USA and China resolved their trade dispute the deal could not conclude. He said that once the trade dispute ends, arranging the sale of TikTok would be “very easy”.

Trump also pointed out that he used TikTok as a campaign tool during his successful third run for the US presidency and that he therefore has “a little warm spot in his heart” for the app.

At the time of writing, the trade dispute remains unresolved, the identity of TikTok’s American buyers remains a secret, there’s no word on the Trump administration having re-assessed the national security threat posed by TikTok, nor any sign that the concerns that led US lawmakers to pass PAFACA have eased.

One more thing: the first Trump administration tried to ban TikTok on grounds that it represented a threat to national security.

That threat has now persisted for almost five years, and presumably remains a threat to America even if Le Poisson Steve is very cute. ®