[WASHINGTON] President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that an announced deal on a US version of TikTok would meet the requirements of a law that threatened to ban the social media app in the United States.
At a signing ceremony at the White House, Trump said the US version of the app would be run by “highly sophisticated” investors including Larry Ellison, the founder of cloud giant Oracle, tech investor Michael Dell and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
Investment firm Silver Lake Partners and Silicon Valley powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz are also thought to be part of the deal.
The lineup of investors mentioned are all Trump allies but he insisted that the app would not toe any political line.
“If I could make it 100 per cent MAGA I would, but it’s not going to work out that way unfortunately. No… every group, every philosophy, every policy, will be treated very fairly,” Trump said.
The president confirmed that the US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app’s prized algorithm, often described as TikTok’s “secret sauce” that helped it grow into one of the world’s most popular platforms in just a few years.
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A White House official said on Monday the algorithm would be “continuously monitored” to ensure it is “not being unduly influenced.”
The new set-up for TikTok is in response to a law passed under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, that has forced its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban in its biggest market.
US policymakers, including Trump in his first presidency, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence through its state-of-the-art algorithm.
Vice President JD Vance, the one-time venture capitalist who led the team to find a solution for TikTok, said the US entity would be valued at about US$14 billion, though he added that it would ultimately be up to the investors to figure out its price.
When asked if the Chinese authorities had signed off on the deal, Trump said that President Xi Jinping gave his green light in a phone call last week.
“(I have) great respect for President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal, because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China,” he said.
Beijing has remained largely silent on any deal.
After the Trump-Xi call, state broadcaster CCTV said Xi emphasised to his US counterpart that China supports market-based negotiations that align with Chinese laws. AFP
