By Michaela Gordoni
Americans have less than two months to use TikTok if China decides not to sell the app.
“We’ve made the decision. You can’t have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones,” said Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary.
China has until Sept. 17 to sell the app, Variety reported July 24.
“If that deal gets approved by the Chinese, then that deal will happen. If they don’t approve it, then TikTok is going to go dark,” Lutnick said. “And those decisions are coming very soon, so let’s see what the Chinese do. They’ve got to approve it. The deal is over to them right now.”
“Americans will own the technology,” he continued Thursday. “Americans will control the algorithm. That’s something Donald Trump is willing to do.”
Since January, it has been illegal for American companies to host or distribute the app in the U.S. as long as it is controlled by its parent company, ByteDance. The government had raised security concerns relating to sensitive user data being inappropriately accessed and American users being influenced by certain content.
Over 170 million Americans use the app. It’s one of the most widely used social media platforms in the U.S., Fox 8 Live reported.
Last month, President Trump issued an executive order, for the third time, that extends the time for his administration to negotiate with ByteDance.
Trump said last month that a group of extremely “wealthy people” are ready to buy TikTok.
“I think I’ll need, probably, China’s approval, and I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it,” he added.
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Trump didn’t specify which group he was talking about, but several groups have made offers, including Amazon; Frank McCourt, Kevin O’Leary, and Alexis Ohanian; Jimmy Donaldson, AKA MrBeast; Britsh OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely; Microsoft; Perplexity AI; Blackstone; and Andreessen Horowitz.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in 2023, “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government,” and there is an “inaccurate belief that TikTok’s corporate structure makes it beholden to the Chinese government or that it shares information about U.S. users with the Chinese government. This is emphatically untrue.”
Because Trump has extended the time period for negotiations three times, Senator Mark Warner said Trump is “flouting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks posed by a PRC [People’s Republic of China] controlled TikTok.”
However, Trump says he understands the significance of TikTok for today’s youth and appreciated their vote in his re-election.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points,” he said.
We’ll have to wait until September to find out what TikTok’s future holds.
Read Next: FCC Praises TikTok Bans in Foreign Countries
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