President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that could secure the future of TikTok in the United States.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance claim the deal outlined in the executive order complies with a law passed by Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden that would have forced the shutdown of the app for its nearly 170 million American users.
Citing concerns about data privacy and the potential for espionage, Congress voted in April 2024 to ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, did not sell to an American buyer. As a result, TikTok went offline briefly in January, ahead of Trump taking office. Trump has repeatedly extended the deadline imposed by Congress for ByteDance to divest or face a ban.
Trump said on Thursday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping came to an agreement that separates the app from ByteDance, allowing TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S.
At the signing, the president identified some of the U.S. investors poised to take over a majority — around 80% — of TikTok’s operations in the country as software giant Oracle, which will have control of the app’s algorithm and provide cloud storage of user data; private equity firm Silver Lake; Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan; and Dell CEO Michael Dell.
Vance also said the new U.S.-based joint venture would be valued at around $14 billion.
ByteDance and Chinese investors will retain a 20% stake, but White House officials said China will not have access to U.S. user data. It’s not clear if the deal laid out in the executive order complies with the law passed by Congress, and neither China nor ByteDance have publicly acknowledged a finalized deal. No representatives from ByteDance were present at the signing, and the company hasn’t acknowledged that a transaction is taking place. No purchase price was mentioned, and there’s no indication that the Chinese government has made changes to laws that would be necessary for a deal to take place. According to the White House, the new version of TikTok will be controlled by a seven-member board, six of whom will be Americans.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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