President Donald Trump has granted another 75-day extension for ByteDance to sell TikTok in the United States.
This new extension comes after no compromise was made for TikTok to be sold in the U.S. by the original April 5 deadline.
“I feel like [there’s] a lot of noise going on politically; it involves a whole bunch of stuff,” said Branden Sandoval, a Media, Communications and Journalism student at Fresno State. “I hope it would be sold to the U.S.”
Trump met with White House officials on April 2 to determine TikTok’s fate. According to a New York Times article, discussions of new ownership involved Blackstone, a private equity company, and Oracle, a technology company, which took place at the meeting.
On that same day, Amazon announced a bid to acquire TikTok. Amazon addressed a letter to Vice President JD Vance regarding their bid to buy TikTok, but no other details regarding the bid have been released.
Andrew Kloose, a Fresno city council assistant, expressed his thoughts on a potential Amazon ownership.
“I think Amazon, who’s already got ties to media with the Washington Post, probably shouldn’t have ties to another social media,” Kloose said.
On March 31, Trump spoke with reporters on Air Force One, stating that he hopes to see TikTok stay. Additionally, he also expressed that he would consider lowering tariffs on China if ByteDance agreed to sell the app.
“I think they’ll [sell it],” Sandoval said. “They’re probably just kicking around prices right now.”
Cheryl Gardner, a Media, Communications and Journalism professor at Fresno State who teaches multimedia and social media classes, weighs in on TikTok’s fate.
“I think TikTok will stay somehow,” Gardner said. “Too many people and businesses are on the platform. I could be wrong. We will see.”
As of now, Oracle is the likely choice to gain ownership over TikTok in some capacity. Oracle would have access to U.S. user data, while ByteDance would keep a 20% stake in the app.