An executive order signed on Thursday by President Donald J. Trump brings TikTok a step closer to the completion of a deal that puts the short-form video app into the hands of American investors. The executive order says that the deal that turns over TikTok's U.S. operations and a copy of the algorithm to a U.S.-based joint venture is a qualified divestiture under the law signed by former President Joe Biden that requires TikTok to be sold or get banned.
That law, which took effect in January, requires TikTok to be banned in the U.S. unless owner Byte Dance divests 80% of its assets to non-Chinese investors. U.S. officials feared that the app was stealing the personal information of American children and their parents on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and was showing CCP propaganda videos on the feeds of American TikTok subscribers.
Will you sign up with TikTok after the deal closes?
Yes. I feel better with the app in American hands.
100%
No. I don't believe that the CCP will keep away.
0%
Investors in the joint-venture are said to include enterprise software and cloud computing services company Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, Dell CEO Michael Dell, and Fox Corp. The company's board of directors will be made up of mostly Americans. The current owner of TikTok, China's Byte Dance, is expected to keep a 20% stake in the app. The White House said that Oracle will be in charge of the app's algorithm and data.
The joint-venture has a valuation estimated at $14 billion
During the signing of the executive order, Vice President J.D. Vance said that the U.S. joint-venture will have a valuation of around $14 billion. Previous estimates of the valuation of TikTok's U.S. assets were in a range between $20 billion and $100 billion depending on the inclusion of TikTok's algorithm. The latter uses things like the type of videos you normally watch, videos you like, share, and comment on, and other factors to decide which videos you see on your feed.
Screenshot of the TikTok app for iOS. | Image credit-PhoneArena
There are quite a few questions that will need to be answered. For example, will U.S. users have to install a separate U.S. TikTok app? There are also concerns about the content that the app may show especially since the investor group buying TikTok includes several Trump allies. Interestingly, right after accusing Jimmy Kimmel of telling 99% of his jokes against the Republicans, a situation which the president said made ABC an arm of the Democratic National Committee leading the president to threaten a lawsuit against ABC, Trump said that he would love TikTok's algorithm to be "100% MAGA."
Trump, Vance make it clear that post-deal, TikTok will not stream only MAGA propaganda
However, at the end of the day, both the president and vice president made it clear that TikTok won't be a propaganda mouthpiece for the MAGA movement. In fact. you have to give both of them credit for their comments making this clear. "If I could make it 100% MAGA, I would, but it’s not going to work out that way,” Trump said. "Everyone is going to be treated fairly, every group, every philosophy."
The Vice President said, "We want the business to make decisions about content based on the interest of the business and based on the interest of the users, and that’s what we think will happen." Let's hope they are both being honest about this.
Regulatory agencies will have to sign off on the deal before it closes. One important approval was received as Trump commented on his call last week with China's President Xi Jinping. "I had a very good talk with [Chinese] President Xi, and we talked about TikTok and other things, but we talked about TikTok and he gave us the go-ahead." That call took place last Friday.
When you think about, did Trump really changed his mind on TikTok?
I'll admit it. I was one of those in the media who said that Trump had changed his opinion from his first term when he wanted to ban TikTok and that he changed his mind after his son Barron explained how the app could deliver the youth vote to him. But the truth is that even during the first term, Trump's goal was to get TikTok into American hands. And now he is on the verge of making this happen.
"Iconic Phones" is coming this Fall!
Good news everyone! Over the past year we've been working on an exciting passion project of ours and we're thrilled to announce it will be ready to release in just a few short months.
Recommended Stories
"Iconic Phones: Revolution at Your Fingertips" is a must-have coffee table book for every tech-head that will bring you on a journey to relive the greatest technological revolution of the 21st century. For more details, simply follow the link below!
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts:
New accounts created within the last 24 hours may experience restrictions on how frequently they can
post or comment.
These limits are in place as a precaution and will automatically lift.
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: