TikTok on Friday was hours from a deadline to find a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States.

The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration was "very close" to a deal to find a buyer for TikTok, adding that it involved "multiple" investors but giving no further details.

Motivated by national security fears and widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration.

In the hours before that deadline, TikTok temporarily shut........

© International Business Times