Even with the TikTok divest-or-ban law officially in effect since January, the app has only shutdown service in the US for one day. Now, The Information reports that an agreement for a sale satisfying the law’s requirement is close and would come with a new, separate version of the app, The Verge reported.

Any deal, however, would need approval from the Chinese government, which is also still wrangling with the Trump administration over tariffs.

The outlet reports that Trump administration says it’s close to working out a sale to a group of “non-Chinese” investors, including Oracle, with the current majority owner ByteDance maintaining a minority stake that would satisfy the terms of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal reported that the General Services Administration says Oracle has reached a new agreement with the federal government that “is the first of its kind that provides the entire government with a discount on cloud infrastructure.” With a 75 percent discount on licensed software.

Apple Insider reported: Users of TikTok in the US will eventually need to migrate to the new version of the app, through the company reports that the present version is expected to work until March 2026. The unusual update will enable the new app to address security concerns, and allow the new owners of the US version to take control.

A consortium of non-Chinese tech firms are expected to buy TikTok’s US operations. Among those involved in the deal is US-based firm Oracle, through original owner Bytedance will retain a minority interest, according to The Information.

Users in the United States will be required to install the new version of the app in order to continue accessing the service. The current US version will stop working in March 2026 if they do not update.

The dilemma for the Chinese-owned social service originally came during later days of the Biden Administration. Acting on concerns about US user data being stored, Congress passed a law requiring Bytedance either sell TikTok or face a US ban of the app and its service.

Reuters reported: U.S. President Donald Trump said in Friday that he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.

He said the United States “pretty much” has a deal on the sale of TikTok short-video app.

“I think we’re gonna start Monday or Tuesday… talking to China, perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives, but we pretty much have a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Last month, Trump extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S.-based firm, majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcement of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that President Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show, The New York Times reported.

In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties,” so the law banning social media apps must give way to his “core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.”

The letters, which became public on Thursday via the Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, portrayed by Mr. Trump as having nullified the legal status of a statute that Congress passed by large effects of a statute that Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in 2024 and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld. 

WIRED reported: US Attorney General Pam Bondi has told at least 10 tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, that they have “incurred no liability” for supporting TikTok despite the federal ban on providing services to the popular video-sharing app, according to letters disclosed on Thursday.

Under orders from President Donald Trump, Bondi has refused to enforce a law passed by Congress last year that classifies TikTok as a national security risk because of its ties to China and bars companies from distributing the app to US consumers.

TikTok can dodge the ban by reducing the ownership Chinese entities have in its US operations, and Trump has described those negotiations as ongoing. But constitutional experts have questioned the legality of executive orders by Trump that delay enforcement of the ban as those sales drag out.

Engadget reported: More than six months after TikTok was briefly banned, we still don’t know exactly what its fate in the US will be. But we do have new insight into the legal wrangling that has allowed Apple, Google, and other platforms to continue to support the app.

If you remember, TikTok was only “banned” for a matter of hours shortly before President Donald Trump took office in January and delayed enforcement of the law. The app’s service was promptly restored January 19, 2025, but the app didn’t return to Apple and Google’s app stores until February 13. 

Reporting at the time suggested the companies had lingering concerns about potential liability for running afoul of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership, The Associated Press reported.

“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. This extension will last 90 days, which the administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Tuesday. 

It is the third time Trump has extended the deadline. The first one was through an executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, after the platform went dark briefly when a national ban — approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — took effect. The second was in April when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership that fell apart after Chine backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement.

It is not clear how many times Trump can — or will — keep extending the ban the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance. While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been no legal challenges to fight them.

BBC reported: President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for TikTok’s sale in the US for a further 90 days.

The video-sharing app has faced questions over its future after the US passed a law last year requiring the app to be banned unless sold by its Chines parent company, ByteDance.

Lawmakers said it posed a risk to national security – something TikTok denies.

Trump, who vowed to save TikTok during his presidential campaign, signed an executive order on Thursday which has delayed the date for enforcing the law for a third time.

In a statement, TikTok said it was “grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support” in keeping the app online for its 170m US users.

“We continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office,” it added.

A deal for the sale of TikTok in the US by ByteDance must now be reached by 17 September, Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social.

NBC News reported: President Trump has extended the deadline for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the short-form video app to an American owner by another 90 days.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order granting a third extension for the Chinese company to sell its platform so it can continue to operate in the United States.

“I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025). Thank you for your attention to this matter! Trump said on Truth Social.

After being touted as a potential buyer earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied interest in acquiring TikTok’s US operations, PCMag reported.

“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” Musk said at a conference hosted by German Billionaire Mathias Döpfner. He added that he doesn’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” claiming that he doesn’t use and isn’t familiar with the platform.

The X owner added: “I do not require companies in general; it’s quite rare,” calling the 2022 acquisition of the company previously called Twitter (now X) “unusual.”

Under a law signed by President Biden last year, TikTok was ordered to divest its US operation on national security grounds. That was supposed to have been done by Jan. 19, but TikTok fought the ban in court. It lost at all levels, but President Trump — who started the TikTok ban issue himself in 2020 — gave the company a 75-day reprieve when he returned to office.

TechCrunch reported: Elon Musk recently said he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”

Musk made those remarks during an interview at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28. 

The interview came after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it banned in the United States. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government was open to a deal in which Musk would require the app.

Trump even told reporter that he’d like to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison acquire TikTok; he’s also signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase a stake in the app.

But Musk claimed that he wasn’t interested, flatly stating “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”

“I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” he said in the interview. “I guess I would look at the algorithm and try to decide: How helpful or useful is this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be beneficial to humanity?”

New York Post reported: Elon Musk has no interest in purchasing TikTok’s American business from Chinese Company ByteDance according to new public comments.

In a recently released video interview at the WELT Economic Summit, the DOGE chief said he doesn’t use the app and could not find a motivation to pursue a purchase.

“I have not actually put in a bid for TikTok, I don’t have any plans for what I wold do if I had TikTok,” Musk told the German forum.

Musk went on to say that he does not generally purchase companies and only does so when he can see an altruistic reason.

“I do not acquire companies that’s quite rare. Acquiring Twitter, now called X, was highly unusual. I usually build companies from scratch,” Musk said.

In my opinion, it certainly sounds like Elon Musk doesn’t want to acquire TikTok at this time.

If you need to download and install TikTok in the US, you can do so on Android even though the app isn’t back in the Play Store yet. In a tweet, the TikTok Policy account has announced that the service has made Android Package Kits available for download through its official web site. Engadget reported.

Companies don’t typically endorse sideloading, but TikTok is, of course, a special case.

The app briefly went offline on January 19 before a law banning it in the US — unless its parent company ByteDance sells it to an owner based in the country — took effect. Under that law, the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store are required to remove its listing if they don’t want to get slapped with a fine amounting to $5,000 for every user in the US who downloads the app. 

It didn’t take a full day before TikTok restored access to its service, but it’s app has yet to reappear on Google’s and Apple’s stores in the US.

The Verge reported: TikTok is now offering US downloads of the Android version of the app on its own website, the company announced last night. With the change, Android users in the United States now have an easy way to download or update the app for the first time since Google removed it from Google Play last month in response to a US ban on the app.

You can download both TikTok and TikTok Lite, a version of the app designed to work with lower internet connections. Once that’s done, you can install or update the app just by opening the file and approving its installation.

Like Apple, Google requires app makers to follow certain rules to be listed on the Play Store — rules TikTok isn’t necessarily bound to when offering the download on its own.  A TikTok help page claims that, nevertheless, the app “remains safe and secure.”

Forbes reported: More bad news for tens of millions of U.S. TikTok users today, as its suddenly better to be an Android users than an iPhone user. But given reports that eBay was listing TikTok enable iPhones for tens of thousands of dollars, this is a cheaper way to get your fix.

TikTok has been absent on Apple App Store and Google’s Play Store since the short-lived ban last month. While users can use installed apps almost as usual, there have been no new installs or updates. This is a nightmare for those changing phones but also a security issue, with no updates available to fix bugs or vulnerabilities.

Bad news for iPhone users, though. With no stateside sideloading, there’s no way for TikTok to do the same for them. The App Store blackout continues. 

In my opinion, it appears that it might take some time before Apple users can expect to access TikTok on their iPhones.