Amazon has put in a bid to buy TikTok, a Trump administration official stated Wednesday, in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is ready to enter impact Saturday.
The official, who was not approved to remark publicly and spoke on the situation of anonymity, stated the Amazon supply was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The New York Instances first reported on the bid.
President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling previous a legislation that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court docket, which stated the ban was obligatory for nationwide safety.
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Underneath the legislation, TikTok’s Chinese language-owned father or mother firm ByteDance is required to promote the platform to an accredited purchaser or take it offline in the US. Trump has prompt he might additional lengthen the pause on the ban, however he has additionally stated he expects a deal to be solid by Saturday.
Amazon declined to remark.
The existence of an Amazon bid surfaced as Trump was scheduled on Wednesday to fulfill with senior officers to debate the approaching deadline for a TikTok sale.
Each the FBI and the Federal Communications Fee have warned that ByteDance might share person knowledge — comparable to searching historical past, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian authorities. TikTok stated it has by no means completed that and wouldn’t accomplish that if requested. The U.S. authorities has not offered proof of that occuring.
Trump has tens of millions of followers on TikTok and has credited the trendsetting platform with serving to him achieve traction amongst younger voters.
Throughout his first time period, he took a extra skeptical view of TikTok and issued government orders banning dealings with ByteDance in addition to the homeowners of the Chinese language messaging app WeChat.
