On June 17 (U.S. time), President Donald Trump extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations for the third time. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a press release, “President Trump will sign another executive order this week to keep TikTok operational. As he has repeatedly emphasized, President Trump does not want TikTok to be taken down in the United States.”
The TikTok ban originally took effect on January 19, resulting in the removal of TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps from U.S. app stores. On January 20, Trump, on his first day in office, signed an executive order delaying the ban, granting a 75-day grace period, which meant that the “sell or ban” ultimatum required a completed sale to a U.S. company by April 5. On April 4, Trump announced that he would sign a new executive order allowing TikTok to continue operations for another 75 days, pushing the ban’s effective date to June 19.
The current extension will last for 90 days. According to Leavitt, the White House will use this period to ensure the completion of a deal, allowing American users to continue accessing TikTok while safeguarding their data. The new ban deadline is now set for September 17. As of now, TikTok has operated in the U.S. for 151 days longer than the original ban deadline.
According to a report released on June 13 by mobile data research firm Sensor Tower, TikTok surpassed one billion monthly active overseas users on mobile for the first time in May 2025, while CapCut, the overseas version of Jianying, maintained around 33 million monthly downloads.
Alaric noted that following TikTok’s brief removal from app stores, Instagram saw a 21% surge in downloads and a 4% increase in user engagement time, along with an influx of advertising revenue from migrating TikTok users. However, once TikTok was reinstated in February, it rapidly rebounded, with installations jumping by 82%. Nevertheless, by April, TikTok’s in-app purchase (IAP) revenue had declined 20% from pre-ban levels, while YouTube and X saw IAP revenue increases of 9% and 8%, respectively.
In early April, after the announcement of his “Reciprocal Tariff” policy, Trump remarked, “We don’t want TikTok to go dark. We look forward to finalizing this agreement with TikTok and China.” He had previously expressed a strong desire to extend the TikTok ban and maintained confidence that a sale could be negotiated within the 75-day window, urging the Chinese side to approve a sale to an American buyer.
Trump’s envisioned divestiture plan for TikTok involved transforming the company into a joint venture owned by its existing and/or new stakeholders, with the goal of ensuring at least 50% U.S. ownership, regardless of the acquisition method.
On February 3, Trump signed an executive order to establish the United States’ first sovereign wealth fund. Speaking to the press that day, he stated that TikTok might be included in the fund: “Take TikTok, for example—we may do something with it, or we may not. If we get a good deal, we’ll do it. If not, we won’t. But I have the authority to make that decision. And we might place it in the sovereign wealth fund.”
Since the passage of the “sell or ban” legislation concerning TikTok, several companies and entrepreneurs—including AI startup Perplexity AI, Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley, billionaire real estate tycoon Frank McCourt, and tech giant Amazon—have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok, but no substantive progress has been made.
In reality, whether TikTok can be divested depends not only on ByteDance’s willingness but also on approval from the Chinese government. On August 28, 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology revised the “Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export of China,” adding technologies such as “personalized information push services based on data analysis” and “AI interactive interface technology” to the export control list. According to the regulation, for domestic companies to transfer restricted technologies abroad—whether via trade, investment, or other means—they must first obtain approval from provincial-level commerce authorities before entering into substantive negotiations or signing contracts. This implies that TikTok, which relies on algorithmic recommendation as the core of its commercial model, must apply for and receive permission from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce before any sale of its assets or controlling interest to a foreign buyer.