President Trump said Friday he has reached an agreement with China to keep the popular social video app TikTok in the United States.
Trump said on his social media account that he had a “very productive conversation” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday morning. TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, a fact that has raised US national security concerns about data protection.
He suggested that Xi Jinping had approved the planned takeover of TikTok in the US, but did not provide details about what the leader signed the agreement entailed.
“We have made progress on many very important issues, including trade, fentanyl, the need to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, and approval of the TikTok deal,” Trump tweeted on Friday.
He added: “The conversation was very good, we will talk again on the phone, appreciate the TikTok endorsement and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”
Earlier this week, Trump signaled that an agreement was nearing. TikTok's future in the US has been uncertain for months due to national security concerns. Trump, in a social media post, did not disclose details of the deal but said this week that TikTok's U.S. operations would be owned by American investors.
“TikTok has tremendous value,” Trump said at a news conference on Thursday, adding that the US would receive a “fee plus” for completing the deal. “I would rather reap the benefits. The money we are talking about is very significant. It will belong to all American investors.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the deal will see TikTok users in the US switch to a new version of the app with technology licensed from ByteDance. US user data will be managed in Texas by cloud computing company Oracle, the Journal reported, adding that details of the deal could change as they are still being negotiated.
About 80% of the new company running TikTok's U.S. operations will be owned by American investors, with the rest owned by Chinese shareholders, according to the Journal.
Oracle Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison is a Trump ally and the second richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of more than $360 billion, according to Forbes. Allison also application preparation for Warner Bros. Discovery, the media company that owns HBO, TNT and CNN, after completing its takeover of Paramount, one of the first Hollywood studios.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the terms of the agreement.
The reports quoted Chinese state news agency Xinhua as quoting Xi Jinping as saying that the Chinese government “respects the wishes of companies and welcomes them to conduct commercial negotiations based on market rules and reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and balance interests.”
The deal paves the way for TikTok to continue operating in the US after President Biden signed legislation that would require ByteDance to give up ownership of the app in the US or ban TikTok in the country over security concerns. TikTok denies sharing user data with the Chinese government and says Beijing did not ask it to provide such sensitive information.
ByteDance on Friday thanked Xi Jinping and Trump “for their efforts to keep TikTok in the United States.”
“ByteDance will work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure that TikTok remains available to American users through TikTok US,” the company said.
The law originally provided ByteDance deadline January 19but Trump extended this deadline several times, most recently to December 16.
TikTok has over 170 million users in the US and is home for video content creators and enterprises. Fans of the application enjoy scrolling through the feed of entertaining short videos.
Some industry observers were skeptical about whether the deal would adequately address Congress' security concerns.
“There are too many loose ends and too many things that could go wrong,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
The TikTok deal comes as the US and China engage in trade talks amid… the tariff was.
On Thursday, Trump credited TikTok for helping him win the 2024 presidential election. He campaigned on trying to keep TikTok alive by appealing to young voters. He has changed his position since his first term, when the Trump administration took steps to ban the app.
Daniel Keum, an assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School, said he believes little will change after the deal. Many creators have already posted their content to other places like Instagram and YouTube in light of TikTok's uncertain future, Keum said.
“Even before, when TikTok’s fate was so uncertain, many other platforms like YouTube and Facebook were adopting the short video format, so creators were distributing their content to other platforms,” he said.
