TikTok ban postponed to year-end as a US deal shapes up

President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday pushing the enforcement of the divest-or-sell rule for TikTok to December 16.

It is the fourth such pause by the President on the bipartisan law that requires the app’s Chinese parent ByteDance to sell US TikTok to American ownership or face a ban in the country.

The pause on the TikTok ban follows Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement of a US-China “framework” deal, with President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping set to finalize talks Friday.

According to people close to the deal, negotiations for a sale have involved a consortium of US companies, including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake—although any deal would require approval from the Chinese government.

TikTok US is currently valued between $35 billion and $40 billion and has 170 million users.