AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep Tiktok running in the US for another 90 days, giving his administration more time to mediate a deal to put social media platforms under American ownership.
Trump disclosed his executive order on Truth Social Platform Thursday morning.
“As he said many times, President Trump doesn’t want Tiktok to go dark. This extension will last for 90 days. The administration will strive to ensure that this deal is shut down and ensure that Americans can continue to ensure that their data is safe and secure.”
This is the third time Trump has extended the deadline. The first was made through an executive order on January 20th, the first day of his appointment. This comes after the platform has been briefly darkened as the national ban was enacted, approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The second came in April when White House officials believed they were approaching a deal to spinoff Tiktok into a new US-owned company that collapsed after China retreated after Trump’s tariff announcement.
It is not clear that Trump could or willing will continue to be extended multiple times as the government continues to negotiate deals with Tiktok, owned by Chinese ordinances. There is no clear legal basis for expansion, but so far there has been no legal challenge to combat them. Since joining the company last year, Trump has attracted over 15 million followers in Tiktok, and he believes he has helped the trendsetting platform gain traction among younger voters. He said in January he has a “warm place in Tiktok.”
Tiktok praised Trump for signing an extension on Thursday.
“We appreciate President Trump’s leadership and support and thank him for continuing to make it available to more than 170 million American users and the 7.5 million American companies relying on the platform as Tiktok continues to work with Vice President Vance’s office,” the company said in a statement.
If extensions continue, the chances of Tiktok being banned in the US soon become less and less. The decision to keep Tiktok alive through an executive order has been under some scrutiny, but unlike many of Trump’s other executive orders, it has not faced legal challenges in court.
Emulcater analyst Jeremy Goldman called the situation in the US in Tiktok “deadline purgatory.”
The whole thing is, “it’s starting to feel less like a clock, more like a looped ringtone. This political groundhog day is beginning to resemble a debt cap drama.
According to Forrester analyst Kelsey Chickering, Tiktok has not stopped moving forward on the platform.
“Tiktok’s actions also show that they are confident in the future as they deployed a new AI video tool at Cannes this week,” Chickering said. “Small players like Snap try to steal shares during this ‘uncertain time’, but they don’t succeed because this next round of Tiktok is not at all uncertain. ”
For now, Tiktok continues to function for 170 million US users, and Tech Giants Apple, Google and Oracle have been persuaded to continue to offer and support the app with a promise that Trump’s Justice Department will not use the law to seek potentially sudden fines.
Americans are even more closely divided on what to do with Tiktok than they were two years ago.
A recent survey by the Puri Research Center found that about a third of Americans responded that 50% in March 2023 supported the ban on Tiktok. About a third said they opposed the ban, and similar proportions said they were unsure.
Among those who support the ban on social media platforms, eight out of ten people who are at risk as the main factor in their decisions, their data security is cited.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Email Committee, said the Trump administration has once again “ignoring its own national security findings on risk, flaping the law.”
“The executive order is inevitable for law, but that’s exactly what the president is trying to do,” Warner added.
Original issue: June 19, 2025, 11:37am EDT
