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TikTok: What does Trump's executive order mean and who might buy it? Who might buy TikTok as ban deadline looms? Amazon joins bidders
(about 2 months later)
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law banning the app if it is not sold. President Donald Trump says he is "very close" to brokering a deal to find a buyer for TikTok, which faces a US ban if its Chinese owner does not sell the app by the weekend.
The social media platform briefly went dark in the US days before Trump took office, after the Supreme Court denied a bid by its Chinese owner ByteDance to overturn the legislation. A bipartisan law passed by Congress last year mandates TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sell the app.
TikTok came back online with a short message thanking Trump for his "efforts". The platform 'went dark' for a day in January in the US after the law took effect, until Trump intervened and delayed the ban until 5 April.
Has Trump overturned the TikTok ban? The US government has said TikTok poses a threat to national security because Chinese authorities might access its vast trove of user data, which Beijing denies.
An executive order is an instruction from the president which has the weight of the law behind it. Who might buy TikTok?
But Trump's order does not overturn the ban. Speaking on Air Force One on Thursday, Trump said "multiple investors" were closing in on a deal.
Instead it tells the US attorney general not to enforce the law for now - something experts had expected would be his first move. He also suggested the US could offer a deal where China agrees to approve a TikTok sale in exchange for relief from US tariffs on Chinese imports.
That buys time for his administration to, as the order puts it, "determine the appropriate course of action." Several potential buyers have cropped up in reports.
Trump has floated the possibility of TikTok becoming a joint venture, telling reporters he was seeking a 50-50 partnership between "the United States" and ByteDance, though he did not give any further details on how that might work. Amazon has put in a last-minute offer to the White House to acquire TikTok, according to the BBC's US partner CBS. Amazon declined to comment.
For now though the order creates a situation where the president is directly opposing a ruling made by the Supreme Court, which upheld the law to ban TikTok on 17 January. Trump has said he would be open to selling TikTok to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, as well as Elon Musk, although the latter said he had no intention of buying.
It said the ban was "designed to prevent China - a designated foreign adversary - from leveraging its control over ByteDance to capture the personal data of US TikTok users". Other potential buyers include billionaire Frank McCourt, together with Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary - a celebrity investor on Shark Tank, the US version of Dragons' Den.
Technically, even after the 75 days have passed, it would be possible for Trump to allow the law to stand but tell the Department of Justice (DoJ) to continue to ignore it. Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit, said in a post on X last month that he had joined Mr McCourt's bid.
The government would be effectively telling Apple and Google they will not be punished for continuing to allow people to download TikTok onto their devices, meaning the law would remain in place but would essentially be redundant. The biggest YouTuber in the world Jimmy Donaldson - AKA MrBeast - has also said he's looking to buy TikTok as part of a group of investors.
It is not clear whether the firms would continue to offer the app under these circumstances. Tim Stokely, the British founder of OnlyFans, has also to offered to buy TikTok under his recently re-launched company, Zoop.
Could Elon Musk, MrBeast or Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary buy TikTok? Computing giant Microsoft, private equity giant Blackstone, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and search engine Perplexity AI are also reportedly in the running for a stake.
ByteDance has long insisted that its prize asset is not for sale, however could that change with a new president? The White House has reportedly considered an option whereby ByteDance would keep ownership of TikTok's algorithm, but lease it to a new entity operating the video-sharing app within the US.
When Trump signed the executive order, he said "every rich person has called me" to signal their interest in TikTok. Buyers circle and rumours swirl as TikTok sale deadline looms
Trump appears to want to find a compromise that complies with the spirit rather than the letter of law, floating the idea of TikTok being jointly owned.
"What I'm thinking of saying to someone is buy it and give half to the US, half, and we'll give you a permit," he said during a press conference about artificial intelligence.
He said he'd met the "big owners" of TikTok, adding it was "worthless" if it didn't get a permit of the type he had in mind - but would be worth "a trillion dollars" if he allowed it to operate in the US.
And he also said he would be open to selling the app to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, as well as Elon Musk.
"I would be, if he wanted to buy it," he said.
Previous names linked with buying TikTok include billionaire Frank McCourt and the Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary - a celebrity investor on Shark Tank, the US version of Dragon's Den.
The biggest YouTuber in the world Jimmy Donaldson - AKA MrBeast - has also claimed he is in the running after a number of investors contacted him following an earlier tweet signalling his interest.
MrBeast is the most popular YouTuber in the world with more than 300m subscribersMrBeast is the most popular YouTuber in the world with more than 300m subscribers
A US search engine called Perplexity AI has also reportedly offered to merge with TikTok. If there is no deal, will TikTok be banned?
In March 2024, Trump's former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wanted to put together a group to buy the app but it is not clear if he is still pursuing this. If no deal is reached by 5 April, the app could once again face a US ban and be pulled from app stores.
What about TikTok's sister apps Lemon8 and CapCut? Trump signed an executive order in January, which only delayed TikTok's ban by 75 days.
Watch: Can young Americans live without TikTok? His order did not overturn the ban on the app passed into law by Congress and upheld by the US Supreme Court.
TikTok was the only ByteDance app which came back immediately - though only for people who already had the app. Trump could allow the law to stand, but ask the Department of Justice to continue to ignore it.
It is still not available to download from Apple and Google's app stores. The government would effectively be telling Apple and Google they will not be punished for allowing people to download TikTok on to their devices.
Two other apps which remain inaccessible are Lemon8, another social media app which has been compared to Pinterest, and CapCut, a video editing app. TikTok returned to Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store in February, after the companies were reportedly told they would not face consequences for hosting it.
Meanwhile Marvel Snap, a digital card game published by a ByteDance subsidiary, is now available once again after it too went down - which caught even its US-based developer Second Dinner off guard. Trump has also said he would "probably" extend the deadline, if needed.
President Donald Trump has said he would "like to see TikTok remain alive".
What other platforms could TikTok users use instead?What other platforms could TikTok users use instead?
Watch: Can young Americans live without TikTok?
TikTok says it has 170 million US users who spent - on average - 51 minutes per day on the app in 2024.TikTok says it has 170 million US users who spent - on average - 51 minutes per day on the app in 2024.
Experts say rivals such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts could benefit if Trump's efforts to fully restore TikTok don't succeed. Experts say rivals such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts could benefit if Trump's efforts to broker a sale of TikTok don't succeed.
Users bring advertisers - so this could be a big financial boost to those platforms.
"Chief marketing officers who we've spoken with confirmed that they will divert their media dollars to Meta and Google if they can no longer advertise on TikTok," said Kelsey Chickering, an analyst at market research company Forrester."Chief marketing officers who we've spoken with confirmed that they will divert their media dollars to Meta and Google if they can no longer advertise on TikTok," said Kelsey Chickering, an analyst at market research company Forrester.
Other potential winners include Twitch, which made its name by hosting livestreams - a popular feature on TikTok. Twitch is well known particularly to gamers, though its other content is expanding too. Other potential winners include Amazon's Twitch, which made its name by hosting livestreams - a popular feature on TikTok. Twitch is well known particularly to gamers, though its other content is expanding, too.
Other Chinese-owned platforms, such as Xiaohongshu - known as RedNote among its US users - have also seen rapid growth in the US and the UK.Other Chinese-owned platforms, such as Xiaohongshu - known as RedNote among its US users - have also seen rapid growth in the US and the UK.
Additional reporting by Liv McMahon & Imran Rahman-Jones