President Trump signs executive order delaying TikTok ban

President Trump has signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law that requires a sale or ban of the platform.

He says during that time, the US will not enforce the law passed by Congress last year and signed by former President Joe Biden.

The order was among a slew of directives Trump signed on Monday evening.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said: “I tell you what. Every rich person has called me about TikTok.”

When asked by a reporter why he’s had a change of heart since trying to ban TikTok in 2020, Trump responded: “Because I got to use it.”

On Saturday evening, the Chinese-owned app stopped working for American users, after a law banning it on national security grounds came into effect.

It resumed services to its 170 million users in the US after Trump said he would issue an executive order to give the app a reprieve when he took office.

TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, previously ignored a law requiring it to sell its US operations to avoid a ban. The law was upheld by Supreme Court on Friday and went into effect on Sunday.

Trump had backed a ban of the platform during his first term in the White House.

TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew attended Trump’s inauguration on Monday along with other big technology bosses, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.

Earlier on Monday, YouTube star Mr Beast posted a TikTok video of him apparently from a private jet on his way to make an official offer to buy the short video platform.

The post gave no other details about the offer, only that it would be “crazy”.

Other companies, billionaires and celebrities have expressed interest in buying TikTok, including X owner Musk and an investor from the TV show Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary.

Additional reporting by Michelle Fleury