Senators Urge Trump To Officially Extend TikTok Deadline as Negotiations Continue

With only nine days to go before TikTok is officially banned in the U.S., after President Trump extended its negotiation deadline till April 4th, the app’s future remains unclear, with the U.S. government still reportedly working with various bidders to find an acceptable U.S. partner for the app.

As a quick recap, on January 19th, the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” officially went into law, which stipulates that TikTok must be sold to a U.S.-owned company, in order to remain in operation in the nation.

The law relates to concerns around how TikTok, and other apps, gather U.S. user data, and could also be used as tools to disseminate pro-China information to U.S. citizens. The details on the exact reasoning have been kept secret, and only shared in official security briefings held with U.S. officials. But ostensibly, the view is that TikTok poses a threat to the U.S., which is why the American government has voted to force it to cut ties with the CCP.

President Trump was inaugurated the day after the bill went into effect, and among his first orders of business, Trump signed an executive order that extended the deadline for the TikTok sell-off negotiations. Which technically isn’t legal, as the bill went into law before Trump implemented that order, but Trump and his Attorney General have provided assurances that related parties will not be prosecuted for supporting the operations of TikTok under the law, which could result in big fines for Apple, Google, and Oracle, which supports local operations of the app.

So now, TikTok has till April 4th to finalize a sale, or again, it faces a full ban in the U.S.

So where are those negotiations at right now?

Recent reports have suggested that the White House has been negotiating with Oracle to arrange a deal that will appease both sides, and also meet the foreign ownership divestiture thresholds outlined in the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”.

Though that will be difficult, as the act stipulates that foreign-owned entities can’t own more than 20% of the app, and can’t maintain any control over the platform’s algorithms, aside from data sharing restrictions.

Both of these have been sticking points for the Chinese government, and now, a group of Democratic senators are urging President Trump to establish an official approach to extending the TikTok sale deadline, giving negotiators more time to work through these issues.

The senators have warned Trump that extending the deadline via executive order is risky, and that the President would be better off going through official channels to avoid any future litigation as a result. That would extend TikTok’s sale deadline till October, enabling more time to iron out the details.

It’s unclear if Trump has considered this alternative approach.

Meanwhile, in what could be seen as another blow for the app, and a potential indicator that things aren’t going so smoothly in its negotiations, TikTok’s VP of Global Business Solutions Blake Chandlee has now left the business, amid the ongoing confusion.

Chandlee joined TikTok back in 2019, after previously working in Facebook’s global partnerships team for 12 years. Chandlee will reportedly still be working in an advisory role with the app.

On another front, the latest data from Pew Research shows that public support for a TikTok ban is also still low, with 34% of U.S. adults now in support of banning the app, down from 50% in March 2023.

That’s a slight increase on the 32% of Americans in favor of banning the app that Pew reported when it last conducted survey on the ban back in August. But still, that means that almost 70% of Americans are either unsure, or in support of keeping the app available in the nation.

Which is what TikTok still seems to be hoping will save it.

As reported by The New York Times, TikTok’s also running a new series of emotion-charged ads across other social platforms which highlight the positive impact the platform has had on U.S. society, in various ways.

TikTok also recently shared a report into its broader impact on the U.S. economy, while it’s even appealed to President Trump specifically, with this overview of Trump’s performance in the app:

Yet, all of these pushes have come after the vote on the sell-off bill was held. As such, the law has already been debated, assessed, and finalized, which means that no amount of public sympathy is going to help TikTok avoid the ban at this stage. Its only hope is that it either finds an acceptable U.S. partnership deal, or that Trump extends the deadline to enact the bill once again, and continues to hold off on prosecutions and penalties.

Worth noting, too, that Trump has said that he will extend the deadline, if necessary, though he doesn’t think that it will be.

But with just over a week remaining in the revised timeline for the app, it is looking more and more like TikTok is going to have to push for an extension, and soon. And it remains on shaky legal ground.