So this may mean nothing, because it isn’t coming from Trump himself, but it could be reflective of broader U.S. government policy, and the approach the White House is now looking to take on the TikTok U.S. sell-off negotiations.
According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the U.S. government is indeed planning to implement a full ban TikTok in America if a deal for its sale to a U.S. entity cannot be finalized by the current September 17th deadline, as per President Trump’s latest executive order to withhold enforcement of the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.”
Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok will “go dark” on this date if China refuses to make a deal to sell the platform to a U.S. entity.
As per Lutnick:
“We’ve made the decision. You can’t have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones.”
Lutnick further remarked that the deal needs to see U.S. interests gain control of both the app and its algorithms, in order to meet the terms of the arrangement. And if that doesn’t happen by the current deadline, then President Trump, Lutnick says, is willing to ban the app.
Now, again, until Trump says it, I won’t see this as a definitive “line in the sand” type declaration. But if what Lutnick is saying is correct, we could now be in the last days of TikTok in the U.S., with just 54 days to go before the current deadline, which is based on the third extension that Trump has granted on the TikTok sell off deal.
A key sticking point has reportedly been TikTok’s algorithm, with the Chinese government seemingly unwilling to negotiate on the sale TikTok’s source code in any form. And TikTok without its all-knowing algorithm probably wouldn’t be the same, which is why U.S. officials are trying to push to include this element in any deal.
Just last week, President Trump claimed that he has a TikTok deal ready to go, with a consortium of U.S. investors prepared to sign-up to the agreement. But one of the key partners in that deal recently backed out, so it’s not clear whether the broader make-up of that arrangement would still stand, nor whether Chinese government representatives have expressed an interest in that offer either way.
It seems, right now, like everything is still very much up in the air. And with less than two months remaining, it would also seem unlikely, at this stage, that an acceptable deal for all sides can be cobbled together in time.
But maybe the various groups are not as distant as it seems, and a TikTok U.S. sale is going to happen.
Or maybe TikTok is actually working on a U.S.-only version of the app as a fail-safe (which TikTok has denied is happening).
Either way, we could be closing in on a critical impasse, which could define the future of TikTok for American users.
And if TikTok does get banned in the U.S., it seems likely that other regions will eventually follow suit.
Which could make sense, given the potential for TikTok to be utilized by Chinese state-backed groups in order to seed mis- and disinformation.
But either way, it does feel like maybe four extensions of the deadline will be too many, even for Trump and his personal affections for the app.
