{"id":2140,"date":"2025-12-19T19:36:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T19:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2025-12-19T19:36:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T19:36:55","slug":"tiktok-owner-signs-deal-to-avoid-us-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2140","title":{"rendered":"TikTok owner signs deal to avoid US ban"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>TikTok&#8217;s Chinese owner ByteDance has signed binding agreements with US and global investors to operate its business in America, TikTok&#8217;s boss told employees on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Half of the joint venture will be owned by a group of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX, according to a memo sent by chief executive Shou Zi Chew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ayra Starr - Goodbye (Warm Up) ft. Asake (Official Music Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/22PZkwJpu9k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal, which is set to close on 22 January, would end years of efforts by Washington to force ByteDance to sell its US operations over national security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is in \u200bline with a deal unveiled in September, when US President Donald Trump delayed the enforcement of a law that would ban the app unless it was sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the memo, TikTok said the deal will enable &#8220;over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the agreement, ByteDance will retain 19.9% of the business, while Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will hold 15% each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, according to the memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The White House previously said that Oracle, which was co-founded by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, will license TikTok&#8217;s recommendation algorithm as part of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal comes after a series of delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In April 2024, during President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, the US Congress passed a law to ban the app over national security concerns, unless it was sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The law was set to go into effect on 20 January 2025 but was pushed back multiple times by Trump, while his administration worked out a deal to transfer ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump said in September that he had spoken on the phone to China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping, who he said had given the deal the go ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The platform&#8217;s future remained unclear after the leaders met face to face in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The app&#8217;s fate was clouded by ongoing tensions between the two nations on trade and other matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;TikTok has become a bargaining chip in the wider US-China relationship,&#8221; said Alvin Graylin, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;With recent softening tensions, Beijing&#8217;s sign off on the structure and algorithm licensing now looks less like capitulation and more like calibrated de-escalation, letting both capitals claim a win at home.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>he White House referred the BBC to TikTok when contacted for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oracle and Silver Lake declined to comment. The BBC has contacted MGX for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal drew critiques from Senate Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon, who said it wouldn&#8217;t do &#8220;a thing to protect the privacy of American user&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the terms, TikTok&#8217;s recommendation algorithm is set to be retrained on American user data to ensure feeds are free from outside manipulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s unclear that it will even put TikTok&#8217;s algorithm in safer hands,&#8221; said Sen Wyden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He opposed the 2024 law, and was among the US lawmakers who lobbied to extend the TikTok deadline in January in a bid to give Congress more time to mitigate threats from China. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cgexp1q8wn1o\">(BBC)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TikTok&#8217;s Chinese owner ByteDance has signed binding agreements with US and global investors to operate its business in America, TikTok&#8217;s boss told employees on Thursday. Half of the joint venture will be owned by a group of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX, according to a memo sent by chief [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[2447,182,55,2097,2519,1016,57,184],"class_list":["post-2140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-bytedance","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-joe-biden","tag-shou-zi-chew","tag-tiktok","tag-united-states","tag-xi-jinping"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>TikTok owner signs deal to avoid US ban - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TikTok&#039;s Chinese owner ByteDance has signed binding agreements with US and global investors to operate its business in America\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2140\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TikTok owner signs deal to avoid US ban - 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