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President Donald Trump on Friday said is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership. Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but Chinas ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its closely-held algorithm, has insisted the platform is not for sale. My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress, Trump posted on his social media platform. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days. Trump added: We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and Chinas Foreign Ministry has said Chinas government has never and will not ask companies to collect or provide data, information or intelligence held in foreign countries. Trumps delay of the ban marks the second time that he has temporarily blocked the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for ByteDance to divest. That law that was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security. If the extension keeps control of TikToks algorithm under ByteDances authority, those national security concerns persist. Chris Pierson, CEO of the cybersecurity and privacy protection platform BlackCloak, said that if the algorithm is still controlled by ByteDance, then it is still controlled by a company that is in a foreign, adversarial nation state that actually could use that data for other means. The main reason for all this is the control of data and the control of the algorithm, said Pierson, who served on the Department of Homeland Securitys Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee for more than a decade. If neither of those two things change, then it has not changed the underlying purpose, and it has not changed the underlying risks that are presented. The Republican presidents executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but his order delaying a ban on TikTok has barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the law banning TikTok. The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if theres a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress. Trumps actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota. Rozenshtein pushed back on Trumps claim that delaying the ban is an extension.Hes not extending anything. This continues to simply be a unilateral non enforcement declaration, he said. All hes doing is saying that he will not enforce the law for 75 more days. The law is still in effect. The companies are still violating it by providing services to Tiktok. The national security risks posed by TikTok persist under this extension, he said. The extension comes at a time when Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they werent sure. Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report. Daniel Ryave, in Washington, D.C., runs the TikTok account @SATPrepTutor with about 175,000 followers. It offers testing advice and helps Ryave find tutoring students. He has Instagram and YouTube accounts, but TikTok is better for reaching people, he said. Almost all of my new students come through TikTok, he said. A big chunk of my revenue is from one-on-one tutoring, and thats a great way to source clients. When he heard about the extension, he was relieved, he said. This extension will allow students to continue accessing high quality short form educational content that they arent seeking out elsewhere, he said. Fatima Hussein and Sarah Parvini, Associated Press AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this story.
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E-Commerce
For all of the risks and potential dangers associated with crypto, it is still becoming an increasingly mainstream asset. Thats according to the latest data from the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA), a non-profit aimed at helping Americans better understand cryptocurrency and digital assets. One in five Americans currently owns cryptocurrency in some shape or form, according to the NCAs 2025 State of Crypto Holders Report. The report, which was produced with The Harris Poll, also finds that nearly 40% use crypto to pay for goods or services, and that two-thirds say that crypto has a positive impact on their lives. The data was sourced from a Harris Poll survey conducted in January and February this year, from a pool of 54,000 respondents that was winnowed down to 10,000 crypto holders. It’s the largest survey conducted to date of crypto holders. A couple of other interesting findings include that nearly 40% of American crypto holders live in the Southmore than double the amount that live in the Midwest (17%) or the Northeast (18%). Twenty-six percent live in the West. Also, while 14% of crypto holders work in the tech sector, 12% work in construction. And only 7%, a perhaps surprisingly low number, work in finance. The report also notes that crypto owners are a fairly diverse set, and that one reason is that crypto has a surprisingly low bar for entry. That is truein many cases, all thats needed to start purchasing crypto is a brokerage account and a few dollars, as many cryptocurrencies have low values. But that also makes it a fairly risky field. In 2023, for instance, the amount lost to crypto scams added up to more than $5.6 billion, according to FBI data. Early estimates seem to indicate that the total lost to crypto scams during 2024 will be at least double that amount. Either way, the report points to a rather obvious conclusion: Crypto seems to be growing, and even becoming more mainstream. Of course, that’s as the NCA is also pushing for more mainstream adoption of crypto itself. The organization launched just one month ago.
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E-Commerce
In the wake of immigration enforcement showing up on college campuses, and in some cases detaining students and revoking student visas, universities are responding. But the reaction has been strikingly different from school to school across the U.S.Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified the Trump administrations right to rescind student visas and deport international students who are critical of Israels U.S.-backed takeover of Palestine. At a press conference he said that at least 300 student visas have already been revoked. The statements, along with the ongoing uptick in immigration raids, further stoked fear in international students. Declarations of support Amid the worries, some universities are standing firmly by their international students. Tufts University made a bold show of support for Rumeysa Ozturk, the international graduate student who was taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 25. Ozturk was cornered by agents while off-campus after she, along with three other students, wrote an op-ed urging divestment from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel. Ozturk was accused of supporting Hamas, while the article made no mention of the group.On April 2, Tufts University President Sunil Kumar issued a declaration in support of a motion filed by Ozturk’s legal team. The statement made clear that Tufts supports Ozturk and believes there are absolutely no legal grounds for her detainment. “The University has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention.” The statement called for the students immediate release so that she can continue her education at the university. Updated guidance for the international school community Other schools are responding to the possibility of deportations and detainments, too, simply by updating guidance on school platforms or sending school-wide emails. In February, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore sent a memo to its student body, advising bystanders not to intervene with immigration agents. “Obstructing or otherwise interfering with certain government activity can be a crime,” the memo states. “Do not attempt to notify any person who may be subject to federal immigration enforcement that federal law enforcement officers are present, or engage in any behavior in an effort to enable them to leave the premises or hide.”A representative from JHU told Fast Company in an emailed statement that the university shares the “concerns arising from recent detentions of international students and scholars across the country” and pointed to the importance of “due-process.” The statement continued, explaining that the school “does not provide information about the immigration status of members of our community unless required by law, and Johns Hopkins safety, security, and police officers do not request information regarding citizenship,” but said if immigration agents presented a warrant or court order, the university would comply. The representative pointed to JHU’s personalized immigration-related service and support for international students through its Office of International Services.The representative did not respond to a question about whether the university would consider issuing a declaration of support, similar to Tufts’, if a student were to be taken into custody by DHS.Temple University in Philadelphia released a statement regarding immigration enforcements recent arrests and detainment of students on other campuses, too. In it, President John Fry wrote, Please know that if a similar situation were to arise here at Temple University, we are committed to doing all we lawfully can to assist our students in these circumstances. When pressed, as to whether the school would offer legal statements of support to students if detained, a representative deferred Fast Company to another representative who, ultimately, did not reply by the time of publication. Shortly after Fry’s statement, the university announced that one student had their visa revoked and self-deported.Harvards Dean of Students, Thomas G. Dunne, similarly addressed concerns over possible deportations or detainments in a school-wide email. The email did not advise students on what to do in the presence of ICE, but rather, directed students to the Harvard University Police Department and Harvard Office of the General Counsel. Yale went further, publishing a page on the school website dedicated to answering student questions on what their rights are when it comes to dealing with immigration agents. It advised students that agents must present a warrant to enter nonpublic areas of campus, and gave specific and thorough advice for both students and staff on what to do when encountering immigration enforcement. Penalizing students for exercising first amendment rights Stunningly, other schools have gone in another direction entirely, seeming to turn away from supporting international students and graduates. At Columbia University, outraged students chained themselves to the gate outside the school this week to protest the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, the graduate student who was taken by ICE agents after organizing pro-Palestinians demonstrations. And some staff have come out fiercely against the arrest. But the university hasn’t released statements pressing for Khalils release.Instead, Columbia itself has even disciplined students for participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations. In a campus-wide email, the school’s judicial board announced they had expelled, suspended, and even revoked degrees from some students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring to protest the ongoing genocide. The announcement said the board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring. In response to questions on whether the school would consider releasing a statement in support of Khalil, a representative pointed Fast Company to a March 13 statement, which said, Columbia continues to make every effort to ensure that our campus, students, faculty, and staff are safe. Columbia is committed to upholding the law, and we expect city, state, and federal agencies to do the same. The representative did not say if the school would provide legal statements to help expedite Khalil’s release. Some say, it’s not enough As universities are being tested, some students and staff feel that the response from their schools have been utterly inadequate. A graduate student worker with the Johns Hopkins University Union, who only wanted to be referred to as April M. for safety reasons, told Fast Company that JHU has “refused” to meet the needs of students and workers. “International students and workers make up a significant percentage of Hopkins’ population, and Hopkins Justice Collective has been making a clear call for a sanctuary campus and denunciation of current university practices, which the university has not only ignored, but papered over with essentially an affirmation of our feelings.”They added, “Acknowledgment means nothing when student visas can be revoked without notice.” The graduate student also said that students at JHU are actively wiping their phones, cancelling flights to their home countries, and staying inside out of fear, all while the university ramps up its private police force, “growing the punitive muscle of the university that costs millions.”The feeling that universities aren’t doing enough to stand up to the new anti-first-amendment push is shared by some professors, too. Jason Stanley, an American professor of philosophy at Yale who wrote the books How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them and Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, is taking his lessons, and at least two other professors, to Canada. Suddenly if youre not a citizen of the United States, you cant comment on politics if youre a professor? Stanley told CNN on his decision to move out of the country. Thats crazy, said Stanley. Thats not a free society.While the professor blames the Trump administration, he feels now is the time for colleges to stand up to the president. Instead, he isn’t seeing the reaction from universities that he would’ve hoped for, saying, “Theyre humiliating the universities and I dont see the universities standing up to it.”
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E-Commerce
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