Communication Author：Chendi Qian Editor：Luke Sheehan Aug 16, 2020 10:10 AM (GMT+8)

The new order buys time for ByteDance to sort out a potential deal for TikTok in the states.

Image credit: Solen Feyissa/Unsplash

On August 14, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring ByteDance to sell or divest TikTok's US business within 90 days, according to CNN.

Under the latest order, ByteDance is expected to destroy all its copies of TikTok data attached to US users, and inform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) when it has destroyed all that data.

Trump's executive order said, "there is reliable evidence that leads me to believe that Bytedance... may take action that harms US national security."

Trump ordered a ban on dealings with TikTok and WeChat last week, saying that this poses a threat to US national security, foreign policy and the economy.

It is not clear what the sale of TikTok will mean to the app's 100 million US users, many of whom are teenagers who use the app to post and watch short videos. Trump also ordered ByteDance on Friday to abandon "any data" obtained from the TikTok user community in the United States.