Image: DANIEL CONSTANTE / shutterstock.com

Sales deadline approaching - and suddenly everything is open again

The clock is ticking for TikTok - but perhaps not as loudly as expected. The Chinese TikTok parent company ByteDance was actually supposed to sell or shut down the US business of the popular video app by September 17. But now the US government has announced that an agreement has been reached - at least roughly.

Following talks with Chinese government representatives in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed that an outline plan for the sale to a US company is in place. Sounds concrete? Unfortunately not. Because no one is giving any details: no company name, no timetable, no contractual conditions.

Buyer to be a private company

According to Bessent, the potential TikTok buyer is a private company from the USA. Who exactly is behind it is unclear. Apparently Donald Trump wants to deal with it personally: There is to be a phone call with China's President Xi Jinping on Friday, during which further details are to be clarified, according to Bessent.

Trump himself had already spoken about a "deal" on his Truth Social platform - again without mentioning TikTok by name, but with a clear message. It was about a company "that young people in our country want very much to save", Trump said. The users would be "very happy", he announced.

How often is this deadline actually extended?

What now looks more like a political spectacle than a clear legal situation is nothing new. The original demand to sell dates back to President Joe Biden's time in office. It was justified on the grounds of national security: The US government feared that TikTok could pass on data from American users to China.

Trump had already postponed the deadline several times, most recently in mid-June by a further 90 days. Now, shortly before the next deadline, Trade Representative Greer is already announcing the next extension. Once again "exceptionally", of course.

Many unanswered questions

It's no secret: TikTok is not only extremely popular in the US - it's also politically sensitive. A ban could go down particularly badly with young voters. Trump knows that. And a "rescue deal" that he orchestrates himself will score far more points than a ban.

At the same time, the current handling of TikTok also shows how opaque geopolitical and economic decisions have become. There are laws, deadlines, security concerns - and yet in the end everything seems negotiable as long as the "right" people agree on the phone.

What remains is uncertainty

Whether TikTok is sold or not - if you want to keep an overview, you need patience and nerves of steel. A law that sets out clear guidelines is constantly being overhauled, postponed and renegotiated by political interests. And suddenly everything depends on a phone call between Trump and Xi.

It also raises the question of how seriously the USA actually takes its own rules when it's not politically convenient. If you want transparency, you get show. Those who expect legal clarity get hints.