U.S. President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Thursday to confirm the deal to separate TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, in compliance with a 2024 law, according to a White House insider who spoke with Reuters on Wednesday. This anticipated agreement will enable TikTok to sustain its operations in the U.S. following months of uncertainties and the government’s threats of a potential permanent ban on the popular social media platform, which boasts 170 million users in the U.S.
The negotiations for this deal arose due to a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2024 under the Biden administration, mandating the transfer of TikTok’s American assets to U.S. entities out of concerns that the Chinese government could access U.S. user data held by the app. While Chinese law requires ByteDance to share American data upon government request, TikTok maintains that it has never been asked to do so and asserts that its U.S. data is stored outside of China.
Despite the law’s existence, the Trump administration has not enforced it and has instead extended the deadline for finalizing the deal on three occasions. Notably, Trump has acknowledged TikTok’s role in his 2024 election victory, and the White House recently launched an official TikTok account. Last week, Trump announced an agreement with China, mentioning the involvement of major corporations in the acquisition. The White House has granted ByteDance until December 16 to formalize the deal, following a “basic framework consensus” reached between the two parties.
Regarding the investors involved in the deal, specific details about the new ownership structure remain unclear. Oracle, based in Texas, is expected to oversee the app’s data security, and U.S. supervision of the app’s algorithm, a contentious issue with concerns of potential Chinese manipulation. Silver Lake, a private equity firm, is reportedly part of a group of investors poised to take over TikTok’s U.S. operations. Additionally, sources have indicated that ByteDance will retain the most substantial single ownership stake of 19.9%, just below the legal threshold of 20%.
Various reports have linked Microsoft, Amazon, billionaire Frank McCourt, and a consortium led by the founder of OnlyFans as potential U.S. bidders in the deal. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and tech entrepreneur Michael Dell have also been mentioned as potential participants by Trump. Notably, the involvement of these prominent figures could signify a shift towards right-leaning ideologies in the U.S. social media landscape, as noted by Brett Caraway, a media and economics professor at the University of Toronto.
The implications of this deal for Canada are significant, as it serves as a lesson for the Canadian government in dealing with similar tech industry issues. While Canada has not prohibited TikTok, privacy commissioners recently revealed that the app collected sensitive data from hundreds of thousands of Canadian minors. In response, Canada ordered TikTok to cease its operations in the country in 2024 due to unspecified national security concerns, prompting concerns from social media experts and content creators about the impact on the local creative community.
Caraway emphasized the contrasting approaches between the U.S. and Canada in negotiating with TikTok, suggesting that the Canadian government could benefit from reconsidering its strategy to establish a more constructive relationship with the platform, echoing the potentially more effective approach taken by the U.S.