April 4 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Friday gave TikTok another 75 days to be sold or banned in the United States, one day before the deadline.
The president's 75-day pause on enforcing Congress' law banning TikTok was to expire Saturday unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance divests to U.S. investors or Trump extends the deadline.
President Joe Biden refused to enforce the original deadline that was to take effect on Jan. 19, one day before he left office.
The social media platform of 170 million monthly users went dark for 12 hours but was restored when Trump promised an executive order to give more time.
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This time, he announced the extension on Truth Social, writing: "The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed."
He said: "We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy with our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A!)."
On Friday, China announced 34% on products from the United States to go into effect Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
China was hit with a 34% tariff, which goes into effect at midnight Saturday, on top of 20% already imposed. The United States receives a variety of products from China, including computers and other electrical items, furniture, vehicles, toys, medical apparatus and pharmaceuticals, and clothing.
Trump told reporters Sunday that there are multiple potential buyers interested in TikTok and he hopes to "see TikTok remain alive."
"There's tremendous interest in TikTok," Trump said.
A spokesperson for TikTok told NBC News the company "has been in discussion with the U.S. Government regarding a potential solution for TikTok."
An agreement is subject to approval by China's government.
NBC News reported TikTok was prepared to spin off U.S. operations into an American-based company with ByteDance a minority partner.
Trump's first extension to TikTok came by way of executive order, granting the company and his administration more time to consider a resolution. The law passed by Congress allows for a 90-day delay in enforcement.
Norman Bishara, professor of business law and ethics in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at Michigan, told UPI that, as the law is written, Trump could extend the delay in enforcement another 15 days. However, he cautioned that there is a lack of clarity around the limits of Trump's authority in this instance.
"The president was authorized in this bipartisan piece of congressional legislation to do a 90-day extension," Bishara said. "Trump chose to do an executive order. Functionally what that has done is directed the Department of Justice not to enforce the ban."
Congress has yet to push back on Trump's executive orders that override its actions. Unlike other executive orders the president has issued in his current term, the one delaying enforcement against TikTok has not been met with any legal challenges.
Bishara said an extension would need to come with the same assurances that the administration made when it first gave TikTok a reprieve, including a guarantee that the attorney general will not take enforcement actions against service providers for supporting the app.
A second option is for ByteDance to divest from TikTok, selling control of the app to U.S. investors. According to Bishara, a deadline extension is likely still necessary with the deadline drawing near.
In order for a deal to purchase TikTok to be approved, the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice need to review and sign off on the deal. According to the FTC, the buyers and sellers of a company must provide information about their businesses and their industries, then wait up to 30 days to complete a merger.
The review process includes sharing of non-public information to the agencies. The agencies may also make a second request for more information, granting them additional time to review the deal.
A deal becomes more complicated if the purchasing entity is involved in the same industry as the seller. For instance, a tech or social media company purchasing TikTok will raise more scrutiny over the potential for monopolization or anticompetitive practices.
"There's multiple parties you usually don't have involved like the U.S. government and the Chinese government," he said. "From the Chinese government, that's the real missing part. There is not any assurance the Chinese government is going to let ByteDance go through with this deal and turn over the keys to this much discussed and all-important TikTok algorithm. It's going to take time."
The third option was ban takes effect, causing TikTok to end content in the United States, including the app.
Servicers like Apple and Google will no longer push through updates to the app and it will not appear in app stores. Without support, the app will not receive security and performance updates for U.S. users.
"It's not really to anyone's business advantage," Bishara said. "If the ban comes back into effect, the user base is feeling like it can't trust the reliability of the app and policymakers trying to shut it down. You'll see, really, the value go down."
Trump, during his first term, and Congress have cited TikTok as a potential national security issue. Lawmakers and national security expressed in committee hearings concerns with how U.S. user data is used and the potential that U.S. users could be influenced by the Chinese Communist Party or other foreign actors.
Bishara observed that the national security concerns that were prevalent since Trump targeted banning TikTok in 2020 have fallen to the background in the larger discussion around the platform.
"It seems like there's more comfort with TikTok in some circles. Certainly Republicans who are in power now," he said. "We have Trump saying he has admiration for the platform and its user base. I don't think [national security concern] has been removed but there seems to be this period of almost hopefulness that things can fall into place and you'll be able to get all those wins on the business side and the user side."
