President Trump gave his formal blessing on Thursday to a deal for a consortium of mostly U.S. investors to take over the short video app TikTok, signing an executive order green-lighting the spinoff and saying it has “good controls” in terms of security and safety.
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, but a law passed last year requires the parent company to divest or the app will be banned in the United States over national security concerns.
Trump’s executive order says the deal meets the “qualified divestiture” standards required by Congress — proof that the app is no longer controlled by a foreign adversary.
Under the deal, ByteDance will own less than 20 percent of the new entity, and that the new venture will be run by a board of directors subject to rules that protect Americans’ privacy.
“I have determined that the proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security,” the executive order said.
Vice President J.D. Vance, who has run point for the administration on efforts to forge a deal, told reporters the company will be valued around $14 billion, which he said he thought was a good deal for investors.
Asked how data privacy for U.S. users would be safeguarded under the new arrangement, Vance offered few details, but said: “What this deal ensures is that the American entity and the American investors will actually control the algorithm. We don’t want this used as a propaganda tool by any foreign government.”
TikTok says it has around 170 million users in the U.S. — about half of the population. That popularity – and its Chinese ownership – fuelled concerns that the app could be used by the Chinese government to collect data on Americans or manipulate U.S. users with propaganda or disinformation.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed into law last April, declares that apps run by foreign adversaries pose “unacceptable national security risks,” and the only way to eliminate those risks is to switch ownership.
The law required ByteDance to sell off TikTok, otherwise it would be banned in the U.S. The Supreme Court upheld the law, despite TikTok’s free speech challenge to it. But on Inauguration Day, Trump signed the first of several executive orders pausing enforcement of the ban. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been trying to broker a deal for control to shift into American hands.
The fate of TikTok has been wrapped up in the broader power struggle between the United States and China, including negotiations over trade and tariffs.
Vance said there had been “some resistance on the Chinese side” to getting the deal done. But Trump said he had had “a very good talk” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping by phone last week, and that “he gave us the go-ahead.”
Trump and Xi will meet in about five weeks at an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit in South Korea, and Trump has said he plans to visit China next year, with Xi making a reciprocal visit to the United States “at an appropriate time.”
Source: www.npr.org