U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday declaring that his plan to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to U.S. and global investors will meet the requirements in a 2024 law that says the short video app will be banned unless its Chinese owners sell it.
The new U.S. company will be valued at around $14 billion US, Vice-President JD Vance said.
Trump has delayed enforcement of the law until Dec. 16 amid efforts to extract TikTok’s U.S. assets from the global platform, line up American and other investors and win approval from the Chinese government.
“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but 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,” Vance said.
Trump said he “had a good talk” with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump’s action.
In 2024, under the Biden administration, U.S. Congress passed a law requiring TikTok’s American assets to be transferred to U.S. owners — or it’d be forced to shut down operations in the country. The executive order that President Donald Trump signed today says that requirement has been met, with Texas-based Oracle set to oversee the app’s data, security and algorithm in the U.S.
Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, with helping him win re-election last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.
Asked if he’d like the TikTok algorithm to suggest more MAGA-related content, Trump said, “If I could, I would make it 100 per cent MAGA-related.” He then said everyone would be treated fairly. “Every group, every philosophy, every policy.”
A joint investigation by privacy authorities in Canada found that TikTok’s age controls were inadequate, and, as a result, the app collected sensitive information about a number of Canadian children under 13. The privacy commissioners said TikTok has now agreed to enhance its age verification and be more transparent about its data collection.
Trump said that Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.
The White House did not discuss how it came up with the $14 billion US valuation. TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, values itself at $330 billion US.
Republican House lawmakers said they want to see more details of the deal to ensure it represents a clean break with China.
“As the details are finalized, we must ensure this deal protects American users from the influence and surveillance of [Chinese]-aligned groups,” said U.S. representatives Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis and Richard Hudson.
