Jeff Bezos, owner of e-commerce giant Amazon, has reportedly notified the government of his interest in the Chinese media platform TikTok in a letter sent to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. However, the details of the offer are not known.
After TikTok was deemed a national security threat, President Donald Trump postponed the deadline to ‘sell or ban’ it to April 5th, which is approaching quickly with no decision made.
Trump met with his top advisors on Wednesday, April 2nd, to discuss the future of the popular app ahead of the deadline. In order to avoid banning the app from use in the U.S., the Chinese parent company has to sell it to a U.S.-based owner and give access to its algorithm, which was considered a threat to national security because of its surveillance functions.
Tech company Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone have previously been mentioned as potential investors, but according to the New York Times, it’s unclear if a mere investment—rather than a sale—would be enough to fulfill the conditions set out by federal law.
Amazon’s previous attempt at creating a TikTok-like feature within its own app failed to engage customers and was removed by the company earlier this year.
This news plays into the larger picture of President Trump’s push to ‘re-home’ more and more companies and services to the U.S., which affects the whole global economy as well.
