President Donald Trump has signed an executive order essentially approving a group of American investors to sell Tiktok’s US business in order to operate social media apps domestically. Vice President JD Vance said the deal would value Tiktok at “approximately $14 billion.”
Tiktok was required to sell American businesses or ban them in the US via national security laws originally signed by former President Joe Biden. Trump’s executive order essentially executes the sale plan presented to the president while the Attorney General or the Department of Justice from enforcing the law for 120 days.
Bytedan, the owner of Tiktok, has yet to publicly approve any transactions or executive orders, issued a statement on September 19th that “it will function in accordance with applicable laws to make Tiktok available to American users through Tiktok US.”
Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to him and gave him approval.
“I spoke with President XI. We had a good story,” Trump said during a briefing with a reporter. “I told him what we were doing, and he said, ‘Take it ahead of it.’
The order states that Tiktok’s US business will establish a new board of directors and that the US app’s recommended algorithms, source code and content moderation systems will be transferred to the management of the new owner. Under the terms of this agreement, Oracle oversees the security operations of the app and provides computing services to Tiktok US.
“It’s owned by Americans and very sophisticated Americans,” Trump said during the briefing. “This will always be run by America.”
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Trump said Oracle is among US US investors, but did not disclose the full list of new owners. CNBC reports that Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will win a 45% stake in the US company in Tiktok.
“This transaction actually means that Americans can use Tiktok, but the data is safe and not used as a propaganda weapon like in the past, so it can actually be used with more confidence than in the past,” Vance said.
During the briefing, Trump said “every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated fairly.”
Last week, Trump signed an executive order extending the Baitedan deadline to sell or be banned. This marked the fourth time Trump extended the deadline.
Trump launched a push to ban Tiktok in 2020, and the idea was later supported by bipartisans during the Biden administration.
