TikTok is said to be planning a new app for the USA – as a spin-off

A new TikTok app exclusively for the USA is to be launched this late summer. This is reported by The Information. According to the report, the parent company ByteDance is complying with the US government's demands. A ban on the Chinese service was already decided under Joe Biden, and Donald Trump is sticking to it – after several postponements.

While the new app will be available from September 5, the existing TikTok app will not be shut down until March, according to the report. It is unclear how the new app will be set up. Neither technical details nor operational details have been disclosed.

The criticism from the USA concerned the transfer of information from US users to the Chinese government. The US government saw this as a given. There are also fears of a possible threat to national security by leaking information and interfering in the discourse. It is up to the app provider to decide what content is shown.

Trump sees agreement with China on TikTok sale

The incumbent US President, Donald Trump, said last Friday that an agreement would be reached with China at the beginning of this week. China is not the operator of TikTok, but must agree to a sale, according to Chinese law. Nevertheless, Trump said that he was negotiating with China and that there was "in principle an agreement".

ByteDance should actually have sold TikTok back in January. This only concerns the US business. Otherwise, the service was to be banned in the USA. The deadline has been extended several times since then. It currently runs until September 17.

Not only had ByteDance always said that it would not sell, it was also said that it was technically impossible to separate the US business from that of the rest of the world. China has recently ruled out a sale of the business various times, referring to the tariffs imposed by Trump on Chinese goods.

(emw)