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By India McCarty
Public support for the proposed TikTok ban has hit an all-time low, with many Americans no longer viewing the app as a security threat.
“I’d like to see TikTok remain alive,” President Trump told reporters on Air Force One recently.
It seems he isn’t the only one. A new report from the Pew Research Center found that support for a ban on TikTok is at 34% among U.S. adults — down from 50% in March of 2023.
Pew stated that the reason most American adults oppose the ban because they feel it would threaten free speech.
The report also found that the number of Americans who see TikTok as a threat to national security has dropped. In 2023, 59% of those surveyed viewed it as a threat. Today, only 49% still hold that opinion.
Twenty-three percent say they do not see it as a threat to national security, while 27% are not sure.
Trump had previously extended the deadline banning TikTok from the U.S. if they did not divest from parent company ByteDance, giving the app until April 5 to find a new owner.
He told reporters he was considering lowering tariffs on China in an effort to encourage ByteDance, run out of Beijing, to sell, but if the company misses the deadline, he won’t impose a ban.
“If it’s not finished, it’s not a big deal. We’ll just extend it,” Trump said, per USA Today.
Many politicians are not supportive of the ban. Three Democratic senators — Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and New Jersey Sen. Cory A. Booker — recently sent a letter to the president, asking him to work with Congress on “any potential resolutions to the TikTok ban.”
Related: Do Americans Support the TikTok Ban?
“To the extent that you continue trying to delay the divestment deadline through executive orders, any further extensions of the TikTok deadline will require Oracle, Apple, Google and other companies to continue risking ruinous legal liability,” the letter reads.
Many companies and individuals have been floated as potential buyers of the app, including private equity firm Blackstone.
Reuters reported that the firm is “evaluating making a small minority investment in TikTok’s U.S. operations.”
This proposal would spin off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a separate entity, diluting Chinese ownership “to below the 20% threshold required by U.S. law.”
TikTok and Blackstone have declined to comment on the potential deal.
While it’s still unclear whether or not ByteDance will agree to sell, many are working to keep TikTok in America — and it seems the majority of the country want it that way.
Read Next: President Trump Likely to Keep TikTok Online Despite Looming Deadline
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