President-elect Donald Trump has stated that he wants American investors to own at least 50% of the Chinese-owned short-form video app TikTok.
On Sunday, the eve of his inauguration, Trump said this at a rally in Washington.
Trump underlined to his fans that government clearance is necessary for TikTok to have any value in the United States.
“But let the United States of America own 50 per cent of TikTok,” he stated.
“TikTok is worth nothing, zero without an approval. If you do approve, they’re worth like a trillion dollars, they’re worth some crazy number.”
“I’m approving on behalf of the United States, so they’ll have a partner, the United States, and they’ll have a lot of bidders. The United States will do what we call a joint venture,” he added.
Temporary Interruption Of Service
TikTok stopped access for about 12 hours on Sunday for users in the United States. The disruption was caused by a new U.S. regulation requiring TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent firm, ByteDance, or faces a nationwide ban.
The service was restored after Trump promised TikTok’s service providers they wouldn’t be penalized. In an announcement published on X (previously Twitter), TikTok verified this development:
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” TikTok said in a post on X.
“We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
“It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States,” the company stated.
Trump’s Verdict
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that he would sign an executive order to extend the period before the law’s prohibitions go into effect on Monday, the day of his inauguration.
“I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump penned.
Noting TikTok’s significance for broadcasting his inauguration, he also alluded to his interest in keeping it running.
What To Note
- The Chinese digital behemoth ByteDance owns TikTok, which has been at the forefront of national security discussions in the United States. A bipartisan law approved by President Joe Biden mandates that ByteDance, the Chinese parent firm of TikTok, sell out its majority ownership in the app within six months or risk being banned in the US.
- The purpose of the law was to address national security issues over TikTok’s data collection methods and purported connections to the Chinese government.
- The platform supports more than 7 million small companies and has more than 170 million users in America. Sunday’s service outage revealed the conflict between the app’s Chinese ownership and US regulatory requirements.
