US President Donald Trump plans to extend the deadline for China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations for the third time since January.

The new extension, lasting 90 days, aims to keep the app operational while the administration works on a deal, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The current deadline of June 19, 2025, relates to compliance with a national security law upheld earlier this year.

This law mandates ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US business. It imposes penalties on app store operators and internet service providers if the app does not comply.

ByteDance initially faced a January 19 deadline, which was extended twice, to April 5 and then June 19, through executive orders signed by Trump.

The app’s status continues to be monitored as negotiations progress.

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🔗 Source: CNBC

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The TikTok case follows established patterns of forced technology divestitures

The TikTok situation is part of a broader regulatory pattern where the US government has increasingly used forced divestiture to address perceived national security concerns with foreign-owned technology companies.

In 2019, CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the US forced Chinese investors to divest from U.S. companies like PatientsLikeMe and Grindr over concerns that personal data could be exploited for blackmail or identifying individuals with security clearances1.

This represents a significant shift in CFIUS’s focus from traditional concerns like ports and military technologies to data privacy and security issues, as demonstrated by Congress’s 2018 expansion of CFIUS jurisdiction to include non-controlling investments involving sensitive personal data1.

The pattern shows how national security concerns have been increasingly applied to consumer technology platforms, with similar justifications being used across multiple cases involving Chinese ownership of U.S. technology assets.

2️⃣ Potential buyers face complex valuation and algorithm challenges

TikTok’s US operations represent a substantial business asset with approximately 150 million American users and an estimated $12 billion in U.S. ad revenue for 20242.

Industry analysts expect any sale price to exceed $50 billion, reflecting TikTok’s massive scale and influence in the American social media landscape2.

A crucial complication in any potential sale is TikTok’s proprietary recommendation algorithm, which may not be included in the divestiture due to Chinese export controls on advanced technologies2.

Multiple bidders have emerged, including established technology companies like Oracle and Amazon, as well as consortiums such as Project Liberty led by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt3, demonstrating the high-value nature of the asset despite regulatory complications.

3️⃣ The saga reflects broader U.S.-China technology decoupling

The TikTok divestiture represents a microcosm of deteriorating U.S.-China relations, particularly in the technology sector, where both nations increasingly view platforms as extensions of national power and security.

The US government’s position on TikTok intensified following international tensions related to issues such as the Hong Kong protests and human rights concerns in Xinjiang4.

Chinese officials have consistently framed US actions against TikTok as using national security as a pretext to suppress foreign competitors, highlighting how both nations mirror each other’s approaches to digital governance5.

The ongoing TikTok situation has accelerated trends toward technological self-reliance in China while reinforcing American concerns about data security, creating a feedback loop that further drives technological decoupling between the world’s two largest economies6.

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