US President Donald Trump will consider on Thursday a final proposal related to TikTok ahead of an April 5 deadline for the app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States, a White House official told Reuters.
Vice-President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will meet with Trump in the Oval Office.
On Monday, Mr Trump said a deal with ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans would be struck before the deadline on April 5.
He set the deadline in January for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban on national security grounds that had briefly taken effect that month under a 2024 law.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on TikTok in the Oval Office of the White House in January. (AP: Evan Vucci)
Although it is unclear if ByteDance plans to sell TikTok, several potential bidders have come forward in the past few months.
The talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in ByteDance to raise their stakes and acquire the app’s US operations, Reuters reported last month.
In January, Perplexity AI presented ByteDance with a merger proposal that would combine Perplexity’s business with TikTok’s US operation.
Other potential bidders include a consortium organised by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, with investors saying they have offered ByteDance $US20 billion ($32 billion) in cash.
Jesse Tinsley, the founder of payroll firm Employer.com, says he has organised a consortium that is offering ByteDance more than $US30 billion ($48 billion) for TikTok.
Mr Trump said in January that Microsoft was also eyeing the popular app.
This is not the first time the United States has found itself looking down the barrel of a TikTok ban, with the app going dark for more than three weeks at the beginning of the year.
US Congress passed legislation late last year requiring ByteDance to divest their American operations, or access for users in the United States would be restricted.
No new owners were found and, after a range of legal challenges from TikTok, US citizens and Mr Trump were unsuccessful, the ban went into effect on January 19.
It did not last, with Mr Trump signing an executive order on January 20 extending the deadline for a deal to be reached until April 5.
The US government provided Apple and Google with assurances they would face no penalties for allowing access to the app during the extension period.
TikTok started working again for users less than a day after it was removed from stores, but it was not restored to Apple and Google storefronts until February 14.
If investors and the White House can not reach a deal before the April 5 deadline, the original ban legislated by Congress and signed by former president Joe Biden will go back into effect.
Corporations providing access to the app after that date will face penalties in the United States, and the app will be removed from storefronts.
Mr Trump has suggested he will extend the deadline yet again, however, and can do so for up to 90 days under US law.
ABC/wires
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