It is the third time Trump has extended the deadline. The first one was through an executive order on January 20, his first day in office, after the platform went dark briefly when a national ban – approved by Congress and upheld by the US Supreme Court – took effect.
It is not clear how many times Trump can – or will – keep extending the ban as the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance. While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been no legal challenges to fight them.
Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he has a “warm spot for TikTok”.
As the extensions continue, it appears less and less likely that TikTok will be banned in the US any time soon. The decision to keep TikTok alive through an executive order has received some scrutiny, but it has not faced a legal challenge in court – unlike many of Trump’s other executive orders.
