President Trump on Tuesday extended for the fourth time the deadline for when TikTok had to be separated from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban in the United States.
The extension could be Mr. Trump’s last for the video app. He and other officials said this week that they had reached a framework for a deal with China to address national security concerns about ByteDance and its ties to Beijing.
“We have a deal on TikTok,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it.” He is set to speak Friday with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, on Friday to “confirm everything up,” he said.
No officials have disclosed any details of the framework. But in recent weeks ByteDance has been working toward having investors join its existing U.S. investors to lower its stake in TikTok to less than 20 percent, two people familiar with the talks said.
The latest extension gives negotiators until Dec. 16 to find a new owner for TikTok. Congress passed a federal law with rare bipartisan support last year to ban the app in the United States unless it found a new, non-Chinese owner. It argued that the social media app’s ties to China made it a national security threat because Beijing could use the app to seek sensitive data on Americans, or to spread propaganda to advance its policy goals. The law, which was supported by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in January.
TikTok, which has said it has safeguards in place to prevent such tampering, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the extension.
Mr. Trump first delayed enforcement of the law shortly after he took office in January. Those delays have raised questions about the limits of presidential power and the rule of law in the United States. Some legal experts say that Mr. Trump’s actions represent an alarming expansion of presidential authority.
The Trump administration has signaled its interest in finding a new buyer or buyers for TikTok. Mr. Trump repeatedly declared this summer that unnamed buyers were lined up to purchase a stake in the app.
In April, officials in Washington were close to a plan to bring on new U.S. investors that included private equity giants and venture capital firms, before it was derailed by trade talks between the United States and China.
Reaching a deal around TikTok has been complicated by the need for approval from Beijing, which has resisted efforts to find a new buyer for the U.S. app amid tense trade negotiations.
Mr. Trump, who initially supported a TikTok ban, flipped his stance last year. The change came soon after he met with Jeff Yass, a billionaire and Republican megadonor who owns a significant share of ByteDance, though Mr. Trump has said they did not discuss the company. Mr. Trump also credited TikTok with helping him win young voters in the last election. The app says it has 170 million users in the United States.
Emmett Lindner and Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting.
Sapna Maheshwari reports on TikTok, technology and emerging media companies. She has been a business reporter for more than a decade. Contact her at [email protected].
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