President Trump just signed an executive order allowing TikTok to survive in a new framework established by his administration to keep from shutting down the very popular social media platform, while protecting US data.
Here’s more from FOX8.COM:
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday that approves a deal to keep TikTok available in the U.S. after months of uncertainty about the future of the popular Chinese-owned social media platform.
TikTok is poised to be spun off into a separate U.S. entity to comply with a 2024 law requiring the app’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest or face a U.S. ban.
The deal comes nine months after the law was originally set to go into effect. Trump, however, has repeatedly delayed enforcement of the measure in hopes of striking an agreement to keep the app available in the U.S.
Under the deal, a group of U.S. investors, including Oracle and Silver Lake, are set to take a majority stake in the new TikTok entity. ByteDance will maintain less than 20 percent in equity to comply with the divest-or-ban law.
Vice President Vance said the company will be valued around $14 billion.
Oracle will also provide security for the new TikTok, in addition to inspecting and retraining a copy of the recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data.
It’s unclear how lawmakers will respond to the specifics of the deal. Some have already voiced concerns about how such an agreement would comply with requirements that the new TikTok sever any operational relationship with ByteDance, including on the algorithm.
The divest-or-ban law passed Congress with widespread bipartisan support in April 2024 amid growing national security and data privacy concerns over the app’s ties to China.
“The fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law, both because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s a legal requirement of the law that was passed last year by Congress,” Vance said.