Transcript:
Loren Torres: TikTok’s time is running out — again. The social media platform has only a few days left to find a new buyer, or risk being banned in the United States. President Trump gave TikTok’s parent company, China’s ByteDance, until April 5 to sell the app’s U.S. operations.
The U.S. Government has long been concerned that TikTok poses a national security threat. Lawmakers fear the Chinese Government could be forcing ByteDance to turn over data it gathers on American users.
TikTok was previously banned for a short period in January under the outgoing Biden Administration.
Related: The Digital Dispatch: Elon Musk (and Tesla) have a TikTok problem
However, once President Trump took office, he put a 75-day hold on the ban to give ByteDance more time to find a buyer. Now, despite the window closing, Trump remains confident a deal will get done — saying, “We have a lot of potential buyers, there’s tremendous interest in TikTok. The decision is going to be my decision. I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
TikTok currently has more than 170 million U.S. users.
That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From New York City, I’m Loren Torres with TheStreet.
