Amazon makes bid for TikTok days earlier than platform is ready to be banned

Amazon has put in a bid to buy TikTok, a Trump administration official mentioned 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, mentioned the Amazon supply was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The New York Occasions first reported on the bid.

President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling previous a regulation that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court docket, which mentioned the ban was vital for nationwide safety.

Associated | Guess who Trump tapped to supervise TikTok’s potential sale?

Below the regulation, TikTok’s Chinese language-owned father or mother firm ByteDance is required to promote the platform to an authorized purchaser or take it offline in the USA. Trump has instructed he might additional lengthen the pause on the ban, however he has additionally mentioned he expects a deal to be solid by Saturday.

Amazon declined to remark.

TikTok followers livestream exterior of the Supreme Court docket on Jan. 10.

The existence of an Amazon bid surfaced as Trump was scheduled on Wednesday to satisfy 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 — reminiscent of shopping historical past, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian authorities. TikTok mentioned it has by no means achieved that and wouldn’t achieve this if requested. The U.S. authorities has not supplied 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 govt orders banning dealings with ByteDance in addition to the house owners of the Chinese language messaging app WeChat.