TikTok

March 27, 2025 11:57 AM

Trump says he may give China reduction in tariffs to get TikTok deal done

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans. ByteDance has an April 5 deadline to find a non-Chinese buyer for TikTok or face a U.S. ban on national security grounds that was supposed to have taken effect in January under a 2024 law. The law is the result of concern in Washington that TikTok's ownership by ByteDance makes it behold...

March 22, 2025 1:35 PM

Existing ByteDance investors emerge as front-runners in TikTok deal talks

White House-led talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in parent company ByteDance to up their stakes and acquire the short video app's U.S. operations, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. The plan entails spinning off a U.S. entity for TikTok and diluting Chinese ownership in the new business to below the 20 percent threshold required by U.S. law, rescuing the app from a looming U.S. ban, said the sources, who asked ...

March 10, 2025 11:58 AM

Trump says US talking to four different groups on sale of TikTok

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, and that all options were good. TikTok's fate has been up in the air since a law requiring its owner ByteDance to either sell it on national security grounds or face a ban took effect on January 19. Trump, after taking office on January 20, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law. Asked ...

February 14, 2025 9:07 AM

TikTok returns on Apple, Google app stores as Trump delays ban

TikTok returned to the U.S. app stores of Apple and Google on Thursday as President Donald Trump delayed a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app and assured the tech giants they would not be fined for distributing or maintaining it. The popular short video app, used by nearly half of all Americans, went dark briefly last month, before a law took effect on January 19 that requires its Chinese owner ByteDance either to sell it on national security grounds or face a ban. The following day Tru...

January 19, 2025 10:45 AM

TikTok stops working for US users, disappears from Apple, Google stores

TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect Sunday requiring the shutdown of the app used by 170 million Americans. President-elect Donald Trump said earlier in the day he would "most likely" give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app. TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, told users attempting t...

January 15, 2025 5:06 PM

TikTok executive alleges forced oath to support China’s “socialist system”

A former TikTok executive has alleged that she was required to pledge support for China's "socialist system" and national interests, as revealed in a lawsuit and documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Katie Puris, who served as TikTok's head of global brand and creative, claims in the lawsuit that her employer, along with its Chinese parent company ByteDance and subsidiary Douyin, discriminated against her on the basis of gender and age. Puris said that she was forced to sign a...

December 23, 2024 3:29 PM

Will Trump save TikTok?

The short answer is: We will know after 20 January. That's when he officially takes over as the U.S. President. Trump met the TikTok C.E.O. on 17 December. And this is what he had to say afterwards: “We'll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it." Trump seems to have had a change of heart since his first term in office because in August 2020 it was Trump hi...

December 23, 2024 11:38 AM

Trump says it could be worth keeping TikTok in US for a little while

President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Sunday that he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the United States for at least a little while, saying he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign. Trump's comments before a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, were one of the strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the U.S. market. The U.S. Senate passed a law in April requiring TikTok's Chine...

October 29, 2024 12:17 PM

Brazil institute sues social media giants for $525 mln over usage by minors

Brazil's Collective Defense Institute, a consumer rights group, has filed two lawsuits demanding 3 billion reais ($525.27 million) from the Brazilian units of TikTok, Kwai and Meta Platforms for allegedly failing to create mechanisms to prevent indiscriminate use of these social media platforms by minors, according to initial petitions reviewed by Reuters. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Social media regulation has become a hot topic in Latin America's largest country after a months-long feud between X own...