Trump signs executive order ridding TikTok of China’s control in U.S.

The TikTok app will continue to be available in the U.S. under the leadership of an American group of investors. On Thursday, September 26 U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order confirming that the popular short video-making app would not exit the market despite its origin tracing to China. The move is interesting given that the U.S. has been engaged in an intense tariff war with China for months now and the history of having labelled China as a spy country for years.

The official X handle of The White House shared a video of President Trump signing this executive order in the early hours of Friday after a scheduled call with his Chinese counterpart.

“President Donald J. Trump and VP (JD) Vance save TikTok from a ban while protecting America’s national security by removing TikTok in the U.S. from China’s control,” the White House announced to its 2.7 million followers.

U.S.-China strike ‘Save TikTok’ deal

At least 80 percent of TikTok’s U.S. operations will now be owned by an investors’ group led by Americans. As reported by the media on Friday, U.S. tech firm Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX investment firm would collectively control 45 percent stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations as primary investors.

Venture-capital firms Susquehanna International, KKR, and General Atlantic — that are already existing investors in TikTok — will also be part of the investors’ group that will also likely be joined by American media baron Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch.

At the order signing ceremony, President Trump said that he has already discussed the step with Chinese President Xi Jinping and received his approval on the move.

“I had a very good talk with President Xi, a lot of respect for him. Hopefully, he has a lot of respect for me, too. We talked about TikTok, and he gave us the go-ahead,” the 47th U.S. President said. “The young people really wanted this to happen. We have American investors taking it over, running it, highly sophisticated, including Larry Ellison and Oracle, I guess, is going to play a very big role in terms of security, safety, and everything else.”

A Trump ally, Ellison-led Oracle has already worked with TikTok on data and computing services in the U.S.

Meanwhile, TikTok’s China-based parent firm ByteDance will own less than 20 percent stake in the app’s U.S. business. A small portion of ownership has been reserved for foreign investors. According to reports, the one-person ByteDance representation on the TikTik U.S. board will not be part of security-related discussions.

Commenting on the development, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that while there was some resistance from China, the deal saving TikTok in the U.S. eventually materialize and under it, the data of its U.S. users will be protected under regulatory mandates.

More elaborate details on this deal remains awaited for now. The final terms of the deal would still need clearance from Chinese regulators. As of now, President Xi has neither officially confirmed or denied the development.

TikTok’s turbulent U.S. history

Former U.S. President Joe Biden had ordered a ban on TikTok last year before being voted out of the White House. After President Trump returned to the Oval Office as the 47th President, he has consistently tried to defend TikTok’s operations in the U.S.

Biden had directed TikTok to sell its U.S. business to an American company — fearing that its Chinese roots could prove a threat to the national security. Owing to the large number of Americans using TikTok, Biden was concerned that the platform could be exploited by China as a spy tool to monitor and collect data of the U.S. citizens.

According to a Pew Research Center report released this week, 43 percent of U.S. adults under the age of 30 are regular users of TikTok for news. This number is higher than the users of other apps like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.