Donald Trump’s TikTok ban leaves Apple, Google stuck in the middle

It’s looking increasingly likely that TikTok won’t be able to sell its US operations by the mid-September deadline imposed in an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last month.

That doesn’t mean the video app beloved by tens of millions of teens will go dark overnight.Trump on Thursday said he wouldn’t extend a Sept. 20 deadline for a deal. But ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s Chinese owner, may need more time to negotiate with suitors after new regulations from Beijing complicated the deal.

The president has said if a deal isn’t done by the specified date then he’ll shut down TikTok. But Unlike India, which recently banned the app and immediately severed users’ access, the US doesn’t afford the president the authority to close down a social media site or require service providers to block access to an app.