Donald Trump says TikTok sale deal will be in place before Saturday deadline
US President Donald Trump has said a deal for TikTokās Chinese parent firm to sell the platform will be in place before a deadline on Saturday.
The April 5 deadline was set by the president when he entered office in January, with ByteDance having until then to find a non-Chinese buyer for TikTokās US business or face a ban on national security grounds.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday, Mr Trump said āwe have a lot of potential buyersā, and there was ātremendous interest in TikTokā and that he would ālike to see TikTok remain aliveā.
It has been reported that TikTokās existing non-Chinese shareholders have emerged as the front-runners to takeover the firmās US business from Beijing-based ByteDance.
Last year, the US passed a law which said ByteDance must sell the video platform, which is used by around 170 million Americans, or face a ban in the country, over fears the Chinese government could use the app to carry out influence or intelligence operations against the US, and collect data on US users.
TikTok has always denied that it could be influenced by Beijing.
Mr Trump has previously acknowledged that any sale of TikTok is likely to need Chinese government approval, and last week hinted that he would be willing to cut tariffs on China as an incentive to secure the deal.
Mr Trump supported a ban on TikTok during his first term, but has since changed his stance and joined the platform, as well as crediting it with helping him reach younger voters during last yearās presidential election campaign.
Social media experts have previously suggested that TikTok disappearing in the US could have a substantial impact on how the app works elsewhere in the world, as a huge market of content creators would suddenly be unable to post to the platform.
It is also thought that such a scenario would see the social media landscape shift drastically, as the US market of content creators began to migrate to other apps.
When TikTok briefly went dark in January when the first deadline for a sale passed, a number of other apps, including another Chinese platform, RedNote, saw a spike in new users.
