Australia prepares to kick kids off social media despite doubts
SYDNEY -- Jackson, a 14-year-old high school student in Sydney, usually spends around three hours a day scrolling through his phone's TikTok and Instagram feeds.
That is the typical level of usage these days among Australians aged 18 and under according to research by online safety software company Qustodio. But the average could soon drop dramatically.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
3 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Trump Extends Tiktok Ban Deadline for a Third Time, without Clear Legal Basis
AP file photo The TikTok app logo is shown on an iPhone on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, in Houston. WASHINGTON (AP) — 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. Trump disclosed the executive order on the Truth Social platform Thursday morning. 'He's making an extension so we can get this deal done,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. 'It's wildly popular. He also wants to protect Americans' data and privacy concerns on this app. And he believes we can do both at the same time.' 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 China backed out following Trump's tariff announcement. It is not clear how many times Trump can — or will — keep extending the ban as 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. Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he has a 'warm spot for TikTok.' TikTok praised Trump for signing an extension Thursday. 'We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance's Office,' the company said in a statement. As the extensions continue, it appears less and less likely that TikTok will be banned in the U.S. any time soon. The decision to keep TikTok alive through an executive order has received some scrutiny, but it has not faced a legal challenge in court — unlike many of Trump's other executive orders. Jeremy Goldman, analyst at Emarketer, called TikTok's U.S situation a 'deadline purgatory.' The whole thing 'is starting to feel less like a ticking clock and more like a looped ringtone. This political Groundhog Day is starting to resemble the debt ceiling drama: a recurring threat with no real resolution.' That's not stopping TikTok from pushing forward with its platform, Forrester analyst Kelsey Chickering says. 'TikTok's behavior also indicates they're confident in their future, as they rolled out new AI video tools at Cannes this week,' Chickering notes. 'Smaller players, like Snap, will try to steal share during this 'uncertain time,' but they will not succeed because this next round for TikTok isn't uncertain at all.' For now, TikTok continues to function for its 170 million users in the U.S., and tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trump's Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them. Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren't sure. Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users' data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report. Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Trump administration is once again 'flouting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks' posed by a China-controlled TikTok. 'An executive order can't sidestep the law, but that's exactly what the president is trying to do,' Warner added.
Japan Today
3 days ago
- Japan Today
Trump extends deadline for TikTok sale by 90 days
TikTok faces a ban in the United States unless it finds a new non-Chinese owner President Donald Trump announced Thursday he had given social media platform TikTok another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States. "I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025)," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok's sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump's January inauguration. The Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video-sharing app. "I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. "If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension." TikTok on Thursday welcomed Trump's decision. "We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users," said a statement issued by the platform. Trump said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance "a lot of money" for the video-clip-sharing sensation's U.S. operations. Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app's U.S. business. The White House had announced Monday that Trump would throw the wildly popular video-sharing app, which has almost two billion global users, another lifeline. During this new grace period the administration will work "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," the administration said in a statement. The president is "just not motivated to do anything about TikTok," said independent analyst Rob Enderle. "Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape." Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform after coming to believe it helped him win young voters' support in the November election. Motivated by national security fears and a belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor. TikTok "has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control," said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain. The president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office. A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19. Now the deadline is September 17. Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over his tariffs on Beijing. ByteDance has confirmed talks with the U.S. government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be "subject to approval under Chinese law." Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing U.S. investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company. Additional U.S. investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance's share in the new TikTok. Much of TikTok's U.S. activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company's chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally. Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok's valuable algorithm. "TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand -- it's simply not as powerful," said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering. Despite the turmoil, TikTok has been continuing with business as usual. The platform on Monday introduced a new "Symphony" suite of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform. © 2025 AFP
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Japan Times
Trump to extend TikTok sale deadline for third time, White House says
U.S. President Donald Trump will extend a June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short video app TikTok for 90 days despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown absent significant progress, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump had already twice granted a reprieve from enforcement of a congressionally mandated ban on TikTok that was supposed to take effect in January. "President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. That would extend the deadline to mid-September. "President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," she added, saying the administration will spend the next three months making sure the sale closes so that Americans can keep using TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure. Trump said in May he would extend the June 19 deadline after the app helped him with young voters in the 2024 election. Earlier on Tuesday, he had told reporters on Air Force One he expected to again extend the deadline. "Probably, yeah," Trump said when asked about extending the deadline. "Probably have to get China approval but I think we'll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it," he said, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The law required TikTok to stop operating by Jan. 19 unless ByteDance had completed divesting the app's U.S. assets or demonstrated significant progress toward a sale. Trump began his second term as president on Jan. 20 and opted not to enforce it. He first extended the deadline to early April, and then again last month to June 19. In March, Trump said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans. A deal had been in the works this spring that would spin off TikTok's U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based firm and 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 announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods. Democratic senators argue that Trump has no legal authority to extend the deadline, and suggest that the deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements.
