President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving a deal that allows short-video app TikTok to keep operating in the US, resolving a drawn-out dispute with a novel structure that divides the app’s American business between parent company ByteDance Ltd. and US investors, reports Caixin. The deal, signed Sept. 25 at the White House, averts a ban threatened under legislation passed earlier this year. Trump said “the young people” were happy for him to “save TikTok,” adding that a ban would have harmed small businesses relying on the platform for advertising.
TikTok’s US operations will be jointly run by American investors and American companies, Trump said upon signing the order, adding that Oracle Corp. will play a very important role in security.
The agreement brings a close to a dramatic saga that escalated from a legislative threat to a full-blown international negotiation, pulling in top officials from both Washington and Beijing. At its core, the dispute centered on US fears that the Chinese government could access the data of millions of Americans or influence public opinion through TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm, concerns that nearly led to the shutdown of a platform used by many small businesses and creators.