LONDON, April 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ahead of

an April 5 deadline for TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to

sell the video app or face a ban in the United States, bidders

are lining up to make a deal, but it is not clear yet if a sale

will go through on time.

President Donald Trump has said he is "very close" to

reaching a deal on TikTok, with multiple investors involved.

After unveiling new global tariffs, Trump said on Thursday

he would consider a deal for TikTok in which China approves the

sale in exchange for relief from the new levies - now at 54% for

Chinese goods imported into the United States.

Here's what you need to know about the future of TikTok.

WHO IS BIDDING FOR TIKTOK?

Zoop, a startup created by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely,

partnered with the cryptocurrency foundation Hbar Foundation to

bid for the app.

Amazon, Perplexity AI, marketing platform AppLovin, U.S.

billionaire Frank McCourt and influencer Jimmy Donaldson, better

known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, have also entered bids.

Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining

ByteDance's non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna

International Group and General Atlantic, in bidding for the

business.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to buy

out TikTok's Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by tech

company Oracle.

Trump has said he would like the U.S. government to have a

50% stake in any joint venture.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment by the time

of publication.

WILL SELLING TIKTOK IMPROVE NATIONAL SECURITY?

The U.S. government has long claimed TikTok is a national

security concern, but has released little evidence of specific

breaches. Cybersecurity experts are divided over the effects of

the ban.

"There was never a plausible threat model that showed the

data collected by TikTok about its users could be used to

undermine U.S. national security," said Milton L. Mueller, a

cybersecurity expert from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"A change in ownership makes little security difference ...

the security impact will be non-existent," Mueller said.

He said that unless U.S. users were disconnected from global

users in the way that Chinese apps are siloed from the global

internet, content and data could be provided from ByteDance if

requested by the Chinese government.

However Matt Pearl, a director at the Center for Strategic

and International Studies (CSIS) think tank, said selling TikTok

would prevent the Chinese government from spying on Americans or

engaging in influence operations by manipulating the algorithm.

Trump could also target other Chinese companies, such as AI

company DeepSeek, in a push for data sovereignty under the law.

"A sale would prevent the (Chinese government) from engaging

in nefarious activity using the algorithm/data it has (in ways

that a U.S. owner would not be motivated to do), but it would

not necessarily change transparency or data-sharing practices,

which would be up to the new owner and Congress," Pearl said in

emailed comments.

Babette Ngene, a director of digital civil liberties

non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said banning TikTok

was unconstitutional and disastrous for free speech.

"To truly reduce the supply of data that foreign adversaries

can obtain, we need federal privacy legislation that limits how

all companies collect and share our personal data," she said.

WHY HAS TIKTOK REMAINED IN THE U.S.?

The push to ban TikTok began in 2020 when Trump issued

an executive order over national security concerns related to

Chinese ownership.

Although the order faced legal challenges, the Biden

administration later backed a legislative approach for ByteDance

to either divest the app or have it banned nationwide.

Trump said he saved the app because it helped him win the

2024 presidential election, adding he had "a warm spot in (his)

heart for TikTok".

This is despite lawmakers on both sides of the political

aisle saying that ByteDance should have more time to divest the

app, following the initial ban deadline, but also that TikTok

remains a national security concern.

WHERE HAS TIKTOK BEEN BANNED?

The United States, Britain and several European Union bodies

have already imposed bans on government devices, as has Taiwan,

but other countries have gone further.

In November, Canada ordered TikTok's business in the country

be dissolved, citing national security concerns, but did not

block users' access to the app.

Nepal, Iran, Afghanistan, Senegal and Somalia have banned

TikTok, while Albania has a year-long ban on the app until the

end of 2025.

India banned TikTok in 2020. Pakistan has issued four

temporary bans, with the most recent ending in November 2022.

TikTok is unavailable in China, where citizens use its

Chinese equivalent Douyin. While the two apps work similarly,

content is not shared between them, and Douyin remains under

tight censorship.

(Reporting by Adam Smith and Rina Chandran; Editing by Jon

Hemming. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of

Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.context.news)