Senator Criticizes Trump for Giving ByteDance More Time to Sell TikTok
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., accused the Trump administration April 7 of violating the 2024 law that requires China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban on the social media application.
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Warner said in a letter to President Donald Trump that while the TikTok law allows for only one 90-day deadline extension, Trump on April 4 gave ByteDance a second 75-day extension (see 2504040062). "This second delay ... is a clear violation of the law while also continuing to leave Americans vulnerable to malign influence operations conducted by an adversary country," Warner wrote.
Warner also reiterated his view that to ensure compliance with the 2024 law, any deal the administration reaches with ByteDance must fully end the company’s ownership and control of TikTok (see 2504020069). “Any qualified divestiture must ensure a clean operational break from ByteDance and TikTok USA, including by preventing either company from continuing to develop, influence, or access personal data or source code (including the content recommendation algorithm) maintained by the divested company,” Warner wrote.
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.