TikTok's fate in the US is on the line

That’s when US President Donald Trump’s deadline for the Chinese-owned company to be sold or shut down expires. Without further extensions from Trump or Congress, or the company failing to announce a buyer, it will spell the end for TikTok, which has 170 million US users.

TikTok's time in the US is running out unless parent company ByteDance reaches a deal to sell the social media platform before April 5.

US officials have long argued that the Chinese government — seen as a US adversary — could access Americans' TikTok user data for nefarious purposes or use the platform for propaganda purposes.

President Donald Trump has said several parties are interested in acquiring TikTok, though he did not provide details. Bloomberg and The Information previously reported that Oracle, TikTok’s cloud provider, was the frontrunner in the race.

Other interested parties include a group of investors led by Frank McCourt. Microsoft and Walmart previously tried to buy TikTok in 2020 but failed.

Trump has also recently floated the idea of ​​easing some tariffs on China if it would help push the country's government to support the sale of TikTok.

Trump called for a ban on TikTok during his first term, but changed his mind during the 2024 election, seeing TikTok as a counterweight to Meta’s social media dominance. President Donald Trump has a rocky relationship with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook banned Trump from its platforms after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and Trump later threatened to jail Zuckerberg.

Mr. Trump also said that TikTok helped attract young voters to support his re-election effort.

The US Congress initially passed and former President Joe Biden signed a law banning TikTok by 2024. The law requires parent company ByteDance to divest from the social network. Failure to do so would force US cloud providers and app stores to stop providing services to TikTok or face hefty fines.

TikTok has appealed the ban to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that it violates the company’s First Amendment free speech rights and other constitutional rights. A group of TikTok users have also made similar claims in a related lawsuit, claiming they were deprived of their constitutional rights.

However, the court ruled in favor of the government, arguing that TikTok, as a foreign entity, was not entitled to constitutional protections, and that national security concerns outweighed the government’s restrictions on TikTok. The court also found that the law only limited freedom of speech, as social media users could still access and post on other platforms.

TikTok briefly went offline in January, just before the original January 19 deadline for the sale expired, but was quickly brought back online when Mr. Trump extended the divestment period by 75 days.

Now, ByteDance has just a few days to decide whether to continue to stay with US users or not!

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/dem-nguoc-so-phan-tiktok-tai-my-1922503312225579.htm