President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to bring TikTok’s U.S. operations under American control, averting a ban on the popular Chinese-owned social media app.
In a press conference, Trump said the American group set to control TikTok in the U.S. will involve billionaire Rupert Murdoch, Dell Technologies (DELL) CEO Michael Dell, and Oracle’s (ORCL) Larry Ellison. Vice President JD Vance said more information about the deal will be made public in the coming weeks.
Chinese-owned TikTok has around 170 million users in the U.S. and collects user data that Washington is concerned Beijing can use. Officials are also concerned that Beijing could use TikTok to spread propaganda.
TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance will copy and lease the algorithm to the joint venture that will control TikTok’s U.S. operations. Oracle will oversee the recommendation software, a White House official had confirmed earlier.
ByteDance “will create a duplicate copy of the TikTok algo and then lease it to the new joint venture, which would then operate and retrain the algo on U.S. servers,” a White House official told Investopedia previously.
The algorithm is a prediction software that keeps users hooked on the app and is widely viewed as one of the most important parts of TikTok.
The consortium of U.S. investors will hold around 80% of a joint venture that will control the new American TikTok, with ByteDance owning the rest.
The new ownership will comply with a bipartisan law passed in 2024 that would have banned the popular media app over national security concerns if the U.S. operations didn’t come under American control. Trump has extended the deadline for implementing the law requiring U.S. ownership of TikTok’s American operations several times since coming into office, most recently last week, until December.
Users, meanwhile, likely won’t need to download a new app, according to reports.
TikTok has approximately 170 million users in the U.S. and its control by a Chinese company raised concerns from U.S. officials that Beijing could have a route for accessing sensitive American data or be able to spread propaganda. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article has been updated to reflect developments since it was first published.