The clock is ticking for TikTok in the US, and according to Donald Trump, a deal to sell the app’s American operations is “very close”—but time is running out. If no agreement is reached by April 5, TikTok could be banned, throwing millions of users into uncertainty.
Last year, the US government passed a law demanding that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, sell the platform due to national security concerns. Officials fear Beijing could use the app to harvest data from US users or push influence campaigns—something both TikTok and China have denied.
Now, Trump is set to make a last-ditch attempt to save the platform loved by so many Americans as he issues a somewhat ominous update.
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When the original deadline passed in January, TikTok briefly went offline for just one day before Trump stepped in with an extension. Now, that grace period is nearly over.
The list of potential buyers has been getting more interesting as time’s gone by. For instance, Amazon reportedly made a last-minute bid, while Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Elon Musk have also been linked to the deal.
Other names being floated include billionaire Frank McCourt, OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely, and YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), who has openly discussed working with investors to make a bid.
One of the biggest unknowns is what happens to TikTok’s powerful algorithm. Some reports suggest ByteDance could lease the technology rather than sell it outright. The algorithm is the secret sauce that keeps TikTok endlessly addictive, learning user behaviour to curate content with eerie accuracy. Without it, the platform could lose its magic.
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If a deal isn’t locked in before the deadline, things could get messy. While Trump has hinted at another possible extension, there’s no guarantee. Forrester analyst Kelsey Chickering predicts TikTok won’t simply “go dark” again, but if the sale goes ahead without the algorithm, the experience could take a major hit.
She puts it bluntly: “TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand – it’s simply not as powerful.” Data suggests 31% of US online adults already consider TikTok addictive, more than any other social platform. That’s thanks to TikTok’s content graph it operates on instead of a social graph, analysing users’ content patterns to continuously keep users engaged.
If the experience degrades under new ownership, users and advertisers might jump ship to competitors. In Forrester’s investigation also found this opinion was shared among 54% of users they asked about a potential sale.
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With just days left before the deadline, all eyes are on TikTok, Trump, and whether a deal can be secured before the app faces its biggest challenge yet.