TikTok may remain Chinese in America for longer
TikTok doesn’t have to be blacklisted in the United States yet. The US government requires the video app to be transferred to an American company, as its ties to the Chinese government are a concern. However, the Chinese government has already postponed the deadline three times, meaning TikTok will remain Chinese for the time being.
New deadline: December 16
The new deadline is December 16th of this year. Trump believes this is achievable, as he’s reportedly already quite advanced in negotiations over who will run TikTok in “his” country. As earlier rumors suggested, it will likely involve some kind of alliance of various companies, with Oracle taking the lead. It’s unknown which other companies will be involved.
It is said, however, that the extended deadline will likely not be fully met and that a deal should be finalized as early as next Friday. Incidentally, the Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, will retain a minority stake. The idea is that the new American TikTok will become a different app, and the current TikTok will cease to operate as of March 2026. At least, in the United States, in the rest of the world, it will remain the same.
TikTok in the United States
TikTok is currently no longer hosted on Chinese servers in the United States, but in Oracle data centers. This would benefit national security, as it keeps Americans’ data in their own country. So something has indeed happened, but the US still wants TikTok in American hands.
The video social media platform was taken offline for a day in January in the US, as the first deadline expired (in a process that has been ongoing for years ). This coincided with the switch from Biden to Trump, and one of the first things Trump did in his new role as president was to get TikTok back online.
Some people in the Netherlands also fear for the platform if it were to go offline in America, as many popular content creators hail from there. It would suddenly become a very European-like experience. This isn’t entirely accurate, however, as TikTok operates in many more continents.
It seems all those worries about less content or the loss of American creators have been addressed. At least until December 16th.