Just as a deal to place TikTok in the hands of US owners was almost in place, China pulled ByteDance out of that deal in response to our tariffs, though Trump is selling this as him just extending the deadline.  

As the US stock markets had another day of absolute carnage following the tariff announcements, and the bodies of four US soldiers killed in Lithuania were returned to the US, President Donald Trump ignored all of this and went to a golf tournament in Florida to celebrate with Saudi royals. But before he left, he did tend to one piece of business, as the Associated Press reports he once again delayed the ban or sale of TikTok for another 75 days, after a deal for its transfer to US investors appeared to be in place following last year’s TikTok ban by US Congress that the Supreme Court had upheld.  

Well, Trump claimed he delayed the ban. But according to the AP, “Beijing hit the brakes on a deal Thursday after Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs around the globe, including against China.” That outlet adds that the app’s owner ByteDance “called the White House to indicate that China would no longer approve the deal,” though it may be resurrected and altered over the course of tariff negotiations.

Either way, Trump congratulated himself. “My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” he posted to Truth Social. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”

This has Bay Area ramifications. The Menlo Park-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz was rumored to want in on the bidding for a piece of the new US-owned TikTok, as part of a bid by formerly Redwood City-based Oracle and its executive chair Larry Ellison. People seem to forget that Oracle was previously awarded TikTok in 2020, in a thwarted deal, back when Trump hated TikTok, and you have to wonder if we’re just going to not bother following through with it again, like we did last time.  

After all, TikTok has already been banned and declared illegal, but yet here we go again capitulating and not enforcing that ban. And even in a sale to US investors, ByteDance would still retain a minority stake in the company, and continue to control the algorithm, which could still be effectively controlled by the Chinese government, in violation of the law.

“The main reason for all this is the control of data and the control of the algorithm,” cybersecurity firm BlackCloak CEO Chris Pierson told the AP. “If neither of those two things change, then it has not changed the underlying purpose, and it has not changed the underlying risks that are presented.”

Related: Amazon and Founder of OnlyFans Put In Last-Minute Bids to Buy TikTok [SFist]

Image: Solen Feyissa via Unsplash