With the clock ticking, who will end up in control of TikTok's US operation?

Donald Trump has fuelled speculation about the future of the Chinese social media platform as a legal deadline looms over its future in America

President Donald Trump initially supported a TikTok ban but reversed course after using the video-sharing platform to make inroads with younger voters during the November election. Reuters

After President Donald Trump threw TikTok a temporary lifeline on January 20, the popular app is facing a fast-approaching deadline of April 5 that could end its operations in the US.

Shortly after he was sworn in, Mr Trump agreed to exercise an option in the bipartisan legislation that tried to force TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform to a US entity, giving the company 75 more days to come up with a solution that would keep the platform running.

The US President had initially supported a ban but reversed course after using the video-sharing platform to make inroads with younger voters during the November election.

“There is a lot of people interested in TikTok, and I think we have a chance of doing something good,” Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One this week. “We'll be speaking to China about that also because they are a party to it too, obviously. But it would be great to keep TikTok alive and sell it to somebody that's going to do a great job with it.”

Despite ample speculation and investors in the US expressing interest in acquiring TikTok, there is still no indication from ByteDance that it is willing to sell the platform.

After suffering several court losses, most importantly at the US Supreme Court, TikTok briefly shut down in the US on January 19, telling users that it hoped to find a solution with Mr Trump.

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After Mr Trump's lifeline, TikTok took its services back to the US. It also secured important win this month when Apple and Google returned the app to their stores.

“Our US users can download the latest version of our app and continue to create, discover and share what they love on TikTok,” the company said.

With TikTok back on app stores, users do not have to worry about it malfunctioning due to a lack of updates pushed to devices around the world.

What prompted the app to reappear in two of the biggest mobile app stores? According to a report from Bloomberg, a letter from US Attorney General Pam Bondi to Apple and Google, assuring the tech giants that they would not be held accountable for the app while deliberations continue.

Yet TikTok, and its more than 170 million active users in the US, is not necessarily out of the woods given ByteDance's seeming reluctance to sell the platform.

At the heart of all the litigated drama surrounding TikTok is the debate around user data security. During his first term, Mr Trump in 2020 expressed concern that TikTok would compromise US user data, and therefore US national security. He supported bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok or force its sale to a US company.

TikTok has repeatedly denied accusations about the integrity of user data.

Prof Mark MacCarthy, a senior fellow at the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law in Washington, said TikTok's hope of surviving in the US may now depend less on a legal or legislative answer, and more on a geopolitical solution.

“If progress can be made on defusing the tariff challenge and tensions over Taiwan and increasing China’s exports to the US and so on, then some arrangement can be found to allow TikTok to continue to flourish in the US,” he said.

What happens to TikTok, Prof MacCarthy said, would also be a bellwether for other China-owned entities such as DeepSeek, Temu and Shein.

“The next few months are crucial, and it is much broader than TikTok,” he said. “People are deriding Trump’s approach as transactional, but he is simply taking a very broad view of the relationship and is willing to make concessions in one area in order to advance US interests in other areas.”

With its legal options exhausted, TikTok is waging a PR war, taking its fight to the streets with an advertising campaign showing how the platform helps small business owners and content creators throughout the US.

Digital media expert Jim Louderback said despite Trump's decision to give TikTok a lifeline to continue operating in the US, it still faces in uphill battle for a permanent solution.

It also is trying to address concerns about the security of user data. "TikTok takes national security concerns seriously and continues to take proactive steps to ensure US user data is protected”, the company said this month. “The facts are clear: TikTok has gone further than any other platform in protecting US user data.”

Many US politicians are sceptical of such claims, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

“That TikTok ad is a perfect example of a Chinese Communist influence operation infiltrating and corrupting American business, culture and society,” Mr Cotton posted on X, referring to TikTok's recent 30-second TV advertisement.

Mr Cotton did not mince words before Mr Trump gave TikTok a 75-day extension.

“ByteDance and its Chinese Communist masters had nine months to sell TikTok before the Sunday deadline,” he posted on X on January 17.

Jim Louderback, a digital media expert and author of Inside the Creator Economy newsletter, said despite recent wins giving TikTok oxygen, its US future is far from assured.

“This is the law of the land passed by the Congress of the US, and the Supreme Court unequivocally didn’t turn that down,” Mr Louderback said. “The President’s powers in our government, he doesn’t have the ability to unilaterally overturn a law passed by Congress.”

He said that among the rumoured potential buyers for TikTok, should it divest, are Microsoft, billionaire Frank McCourt and YouTuber MrBeast.

“Whomever buys it – it has to be more than 50 per cent of control – all the data has to be local in the US, without ByteDance having the ability to access that data, and that’s going to be really hard to figure out, and that’s the burden that whomever buys it is going to have deal figure out.”

Mr Louderback also re-emphasised the greatest sticking point to any deal – ByteDance's reluctance to give up its controlling share of the popular social platform that has become the envy of the technology and entertainment world.

He also said TikTok's recent PR campaign and increased stance on data privacy might be aimed at the US Congress reversing the bill, which has caused it so much consternation for more than a year.

“It certainly seems like all this might be connected,” Mr Louderback added.

ByteDance did not respond to The National's requests to take part in this story, or to comment on a possible sale of the TikTok platform.

Salim A Essaid contributed to this report.