What does Trump’s executive order mean and who might buy it?

US President Donald Trump has signed an government order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to adjust to a regulation banning the app if it isn’t bought.

The social media platform briefly went darkish within the US days earlier than Trump took workplace, after the Supreme Court docket denied a bid by its Chinese language proprietor ByteDance to overturn the laws.

TikTok got here again on-line with a brief message thanking Trump for his “efforts”.

An executive order is an instruction from the president which has the burden of the regulation behind it.

However Trump’s order doesn’t overturn the ban.

As a substitute it tells the US legal professional common to not implement the regulation for now – one thing consultants had anticipated could be his first transfer.

That buys time for his administration to, because the order places it, “decide the suitable plan of action.”

Trump has floated the potential of TikTok turning into a three way partnership, telling reporters he was in search of a 50-50 partnership between “america” and ByteDance, although he didn’t give any additional particulars on how that may work.

For now although the order creates a scenario the place the president is instantly opposing a ruling made by the Supreme Court docket, which upheld the law to ban TikTok on 17 January.

It stated the ban was “designed to forestall China – a chosen international adversary – from leveraging its management over ByteDance to seize the private information of US TikTok customers”.

Technically, even after the 75 days have handed, it could be attainable for Trump to permit the regulation to face however inform the Division of Justice (DoJ) to proceed to disregard it.

The federal government could be successfully telling Apple and Google they won’t be punished for persevering with to permit individuals to obtain TikTok onto their units, which means the regulation would stay in place however would primarily be redundant.

It’s not clear whether or not the companies would proceed to supply the app underneath these circumstances.

ByteDance has lengthy insisted that its prize asset isn’t on the market, nevertheless may that change with a brand new president?

When Trump signed the chief order, he stated “each wealthy individual has referred to as me” to sign their curiosity in TikTok.

Trump seems to wish to discover a compromise that complies with the spirit reasonably than the letter of regulation, floating the concept of TikTok being collectively owned.

“What I am considering of claiming to somebody is purchase it and provides half to the US, half, and we’ll offer you a allow,” he stated throughout a press convention about synthetic intelligence.

He stated he’d met the “massive house owners” of TikTok, including it was “nugatory” if it did not get a allow of the sort he had in thoughts – however could be value “a trillion {dollars}” if he allowed it to function within the US.

And he additionally stated he could be open to promoting the app to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, in addition to Elon Musk.

“I might be, if he needed to purchase it,” he stated.

Earlier names linked with shopping for TikTok embody billionaire Frank McCourt and the Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary – a celeb investor on Shark Tank, the US model of Dragon’s Den.

The most important YouTuber on the earth Jimmy Donaldson – AKA MrBeast – has also claimed he is in the running after numerous traders contacted him following an earlier tweet signalling his curiosity.

A US search engine referred to as Perplexity AI has additionally reportedly provided to merge with TikTok.

In March 2024, Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated he needed to place collectively a gaggle to purchase the app however it isn’t clear if he’s nonetheless pursuing this.

TikTok was the one ByteDance app which got here again instantly – although just for individuals who already had the app.

It’s nonetheless not obtainable to obtain from Apple and Google’s app shops.

Two different apps which stay inaccessible are Lemon8, one other social media app which has been in comparison with Pinterest, and CapCut, a video modifying app.

In the meantime Marvel Snap, a digital card recreation revealed by a ByteDance subsidiary, is now obtainable as soon as once more after it too went down – which caught even its US-based developer Second Dinner off guard.

TikTok says it has 170 million US customers who spent – on common – 51 minutes per day on the app in 2024.

Specialists say rivals comparable to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts may gain advantage if Trump’s efforts to totally restore TikTok do not succeed.

Customers carry advertisers – so this may very well be a giant monetary increase to these platforms.

“Chief advertising and marketing officers who we have spoken with confirmed that they are going to divert their media {dollars} to Meta and Google if they will not promote on TikTok,” stated Kelsey Chickering, an analyst at market analysis firm Forrester.

Different potential winners embody Twitch, which made its identify by internet hosting livestreams – a well-liked function on TikTok. Twitch is well-known significantly to avid gamers, although its different content material is increasing too.

Different Chinese language-owned platforms, such as Xiaohongshu – often called RedNote amongst its US customers – have additionally seen speedy development within the US and the UK.