When will TikTok 'go dark' in the US?: Video app faces shutdown if China blocks sale deal
TikTok could be forced to cease operations in the United States as early as September 17 if China does not approve a deal to sell the platform’s US assets, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has warned.
Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick said the short-form video app — used by an estimated 170 million Americans — will “go dark” if Chinese authorities refuse to authorise the divestiture. “If they don’t approve it, then TikTok is going to go dark, and those decisions are coming very soon,” he said.
The deadline was set by former President Donald Trump, who extended an earlier mandate requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to sell off its US operations. The original law, passed in 2024, required a sale or shutdown by January 19 unless there was “significant progress”, but Trump granted a 90-day reprieve that now ends on September 17.
Lutnick said: “China can have a little piece or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece. But basically, Americans will have control. Americans will own the technology, and Americans will control the algorithm.”
A proposed deal earlier this year would have spun off TikTok’s US. operations into a new American-owned company, but negotiations stalled after Beijing signaled its opposition. This came in the wake of Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on Chinese imports, which further complicated the diplomatic backdrop.
TikTok has not issued an immediate response to Lutnick’s comments.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, recently released letters to tech companies such as Apple and Google, saying it would not pursue legal claims against them for continuing to host the TikTok app. Bondi cited Trump’s determination that “an abrupt shutdown would interfere with his overseeing national security and foreign affairs.”