US President Donald Trump has issued another executive order giving ByteDance a reprieve by extending the TikTok sale deadline to 90 days.
The company now has up to three months to negotiate and complete a sales deal or wrap up its operations in the US.
“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote in the order, which references national security concerns.
The Trump administration has had concerns with that TikTok could compromise national security by sharing information with the Chinese government. However, TikTok has denied the allegations.
The latest executive order gives TikTok a reprieve from Trump’s executive order issued last week that threatened to block all transactions with ByteDance within 45 days.
The original deadline was 20th September, but now both ByteDance and WeChat have until November 12th to comply with the orders.
The US President said this was in efforts to “address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain.”
The latest executive order also contains requires ByteDance to destroy any TikTok data from US users and report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States once all the data has been destroyed.
The company is also required to destroy any data previously stored in Musical.ly, the original owner of TikTok before it was sold to ByteDance in 2017. The 45 day deadline executive order did not contain the above conditions.
“As we’ve said previously, TikTok is loved by 100 million Americans because it is a home for entertainment, self-expression, and connection,” ByteDance said in an email statement to The Verge.
“We’re committed to continuing to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform for many years to come.”
Microsoft has been in talks to acquire TikTok’s US operations or the entire company. Recently, Twitter was also reported to have expressed interest in acquiring the popular video making app.
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