TikTok asks court to delay divestiture deadline from Trump order

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance filed a petition Tuesday asking the courts to extend a Thursday deadline for the company to divest the popular video-sharing app as outlined in an executive order from President Trump, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed to The Hill Wednesday. 

In the petition filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Beijing-based ByteDance asks for an extension since a proposed deal tentatively approved by Trump in September has yet to be finalized, according to reports. The proposed deal would establish a U.S.-headquartered TikTok Global with partial U.S.-based owners, Oracle and Walmart.  

“In the nearly two months since the President gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalize that agreement – but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework,” the spokesperson said in a statement. 

“Facing continual new requests and no clarity on whether our proposed solutions would be accepted, we requested the 30-day extension that is expressly permitted in the August 14 order,” the spokesperson added. 

With the imminent Thursday deadline and “without an extension in hand” TikTok said it had no choice but to file a petition in court and defend the rights of the company and its more than 1,500 employees in the U.S. 

“We remain committed to working with the Administration – as we have all along – to resolve the issues it has raised, but our legal challenge today is a protection to ensure these discussions can take place,” the spokesperson said. 

Trump’s executive order targeting TikTok alleged the company posed national security concerns. TikTok has denied such allegations. 

The Trump administration’s push to overhaul the use of TikTok in the U.S. is part of a larger pushback on Chinese-owned tech companies, including messaging platform WeChat, amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. 

The executive order calling for ByteDance to divest TikTok is just one of the ways the administration is placing pressure on the popular app.  In another order, the administration tried to ban the app from being downloaded on U.S. app stores. 

The order has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, but the Department of Commerce said earlier this month it would continue to “vigorously defend” it.  

A White House spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

–Updated 11:48 a.m.