Apple Inc, following assurances from the Trump administration, is keeping TikTok and other apps from ByteDance Ltd on its US App Store for at least another 75 days.
The iPhone maker on April 5 received a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi telling the company it should follow President Donald Trump’s executive order that will extend the pause on a TikTok ban in the US, according to people with knowledge of the matter. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.
"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,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
In February, Apple restored TikTok to its app store after receiving a similar letter from Bondi that provided assurances surrounding a January executive order from Trump that initially paused the ban. TikTok also remains available on Google Play, the Alphabet Inc store available on Android devices. A Google spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest extension came two days after US officials were close to securing a deal to create a US version of TikTok that would be majority owned by US investors. The agreement had the blessing of ByteDance but was nixed after Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on US trading partners, including levies that boosted the total rate on Chinese imports to 54%.
US lawmakers passed the original ban over concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership, fearing that the popular app could be used to spy on American citizens. China requires its companies to share data with the government upon request. Trump previously supported a ban but has changed his position. "I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” he said when signing the January order.
Trump and other top officials reviewed a proposal on Wednesday from a consortium of US investors including Oracle Corp, Blackstone Inc and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that had emerged as a top contender to buy TikTok, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Under the potential arrangement, new outside investors would own 50% of TikTok’s US business in a unit that would be spun off from ByteDance, Bloomberg News reported Friday. ByteDance’s existing US investors would also own about 30% of the business, cutting ByteDance’s stake to just below 20%. – Bloomberg
