TikTok Announces Deal To Avoid US Ban

TikTok announced Thursday that a deal has been finalized to avoid a ban in the US.

The Details: The new joint-venture agreement included a new set of investors, and the short-form video platform will be operated under TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with USDS standing for US Data Security Inc. TikTok released a statement saying the deal would be in compliance with President Donald Trump's executive order signed in September. The statement also said, "The majority American owned Joint Venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for US users." ByteDance, a Chinese-owned company and formerly the primary owner of TikTok, will retain a 19.9% stake in the new venture, along with 11 new investors. Three of the new investors included are Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX, each of which will hold a 15% stake.  

For Context: Trump said on Truth Social "I am so happy to have helped in saving Tik Tok! It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice. Along with other factors, it was responsible for my doing so well with the Youth Vote in the 2024 Presidential Election. I only hope that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok. Thank you to Vice President JD Vance, and all of the others within my Administration, who helped bring this Deal to a very dramatic, final, and beautiful conclusion. I would also like to thank President Xi, of China, for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal. He could have gone the other way, but didn't, and is appreciated for his decision." A Biden-era law in 2024 specified that to avoid a ban in the US, the company must sever all ties with ByteDance, and it is yet unclear what ByteDance's role will be in terms of the TikTok algorithm, which raises questions on whether the Chinese-owned company's role will satisfy requirements set forth in the 2024 law. The algorithm, according to Trump in September, would be retrained and secured by the US technology company Oracle.

How The Media Covered It: Outlets on the left like Politico (Lean Left bias) and Al Jazeera (Lean Left) tended to highlight the concerns over satisfying the Biden-era law, saying that previous reports showed the US venture planned to "license the algorithm from ByteDance, which could be another legal stumbling block if the agreement involves continued coordination between the two companies." Politico also mentioned that reversing the TikTok ban on government devices, even with this new deal in place, "could prove to be a tall order." Outlets on the right, like Fox Business (Lean Right) and the New York Post (Lean Right), did not mention any concerns with the Biden-era law, and rather highlighted the new majority-US control of the platform and the role Trump played in making the deal happen.   

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